Merchant Looking for a Good Network

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TrillionBuks

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Mar 9, 2010
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Good morning to all. I stumbled upon this site in my research of affiliate networks and wanted a bit more info. Our company is looking to expand or sales and harness the power of affiliate programs. Our website is www.irislink.com. We sell OCR software, mobile scanners, business card scanners and pen scanners. I think we have a great line of products to be sold via affiliate links but wanted some feedback from established affiliates.

We currently sell around $4 million a year in N. America on our home/small office products and have decent name recognition in the US. Our products are sold on Amazon, tigerdirect, bestbuy.com, Staples and many other smaller reseller sites.

I was wondering if you can point me towards the most cost effective affiliate networks. We are interested in a turnkey program that will manage our affiliates and actively recruit affiliates to sell our products. We work with a very high profit margin so I am sure we can offer competitive commissions. Our ideal scenario would be one with minimal start up and monthly fees. We would rather pay higher per action fees than a monthly base cost. We currently run an outsourced telemarketing campaign and pay them a 40% commission on each sale because they did not require massive start up costs.

Any information is appreciated.
 


Ruck said:
Networks arent allowed self promotion but if you are looking for some trusted ones try contacting:

Steve - Maxbounty
Smaxor - Ads4dough
Ryan - EwaNetwork
Brendan - Motive Interactive
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Thanks just emailed all of those companies. Can you give your take on Google Affiliate Network and the pros/cons? Thanks.
 
TrillionBuks said:
We work with a very high profit margin so I am sure we can offer competitive commissions.
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You'd think with all that margin, you'd be able to actually afford a half-decent customer support system? When I had trouble with that shitty IRISpen Executive of yours or whatever it was called, nobody bothered even responding after several messages. You can lick my balls.
 
envision said:
You'd think with all that margin, you'd be able to actually afford a half-decent customer support system? When I had trouble with that shitty IRISpen Executive of yours or whatever it was called, nobody bothered even responding after several messages. You can lick my balls.
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Clearly the high margins come from crappy products. Crappy products mean huge CPA payouts. Somebody jump on this shit.
 
Ruck said:
Networks arent allowed self promotion but if you are looking for some trusted ones try contacting:

Steve - Maxbounty
Smaxor - Ads4dough
Ryan - EwaNetwork
Brendan - Motive Interactive
Click to expand...

Ruck, do you really think CPA networks would be a better fit for the OP's site than a traditional CPS network like CJ/LS/SAS/GAN? Maybe partner with some very specific niche mailers through CPA networks, but other than that, the traditional networks seem much better suited to the product/site.
 
envision said:
You'd think with all that margin, you'd be able to actually afford a half-decent customer support system? When I had trouble with that shitty IRISpen Executive of yours or whatever it was called, nobody bothered even responding after several messages. You can lick my balls.
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I don't have any control of the technical support. What I can tell you is that our direct competitors, Neat Co., Abby and Nuance don't have free technical support at all. Our tech team is understaffed but they are in the process of restructuring the entire department and hiring additional workers. We roll out new products or ad campaigns and get a large spike in sales which leads to a large spike in support requests. That said, I am surprised you had difficulty with such an easy straightforward product. That is our 6th iteration and one of the most popular and reliable products. There is a component of human error involved as you need to be able to drag the scanner across the paper at a consistent speed without being too shaky. Maybe less coffee and redbull next time. :1bluewinky:

If you want to PM me your contact info I will make sure you get a call back from a tech support manager.
 
joevis said:
Clearly the high margins come from crappy products. Crappy products mean huge CPA payouts. Somebody jump on this shit.
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Well I would not call our products crappy but they certainly afford a wide profit margin. We really want to link up with a network that has low start up costs where we can build the compensation into the commission fees.

Once I have worked out a network and commission structure I will be sure to post it here because I am confident we will make these products attractive to affiliates in order to leverage all of your expertise.
 
johu said:
Ruck, do you really think CPA networks would be a better fit for the OP's site than a traditional CPS network like CJ/LS/SAS/GAN? Maybe partner with some very specific niche mailers through CPA networks, but other than that, the traditional networks seem much better suited to the product/site.
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I'd have to agree here. Your multiple product shopping cart check out process is certainly more suited towards CPS networks like the ones listed above. Most affiliates in CPA networks are looking to promote things on a per-lead basis and the only per-sale campaigns they typically run are a single product/single price basis or they're looking for rebills.

I'm not sure why you are looking for a low cost-of-entry network, when you've said yourself that your products sell at a high margin. You should be able to recover your costs quite quickly if that's the case.
 
MaxSteve said:
I'd have to agree here. Your multiple product shopping cart check out process is certainly more suited towards CPS networks like the ones listed above. Most affiliates in CPA networks are looking to promote things on a per-lead basis and the only per-sale campaigns they typically run are a single product/single price basis or they're looking for rebills.

I'm not sure why you are looking for a low cost-of-entry network, when you've said yourself that your products sell at a high margin. You should be able to recover your costs quite quickly if that's the case.
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Well, if I were making the decsions it would be a no-brainer. That said, our management is notoriously frugal and risk adverse. They are hesitant to put money towards anything that isn't proven. I understand the power of the internet but they are a bit old school. I want to establish a baseline of success on a smaller network in the hopes of getting the funding to expand over time.
 
TrillionBuks said:
... That said, I am surprised you had difficulty with such an easy straightforward product. That is our 6th iteration and one of the most popular and reliable products. There is a component of human error involved as you need to be able to drag the scanner across the paper at a consistent speed without being too shaky. Maybe less coffee and redbull next time.
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Nice try, but failed. Don't belittle me. Try this:
  • Glenn D. Tiffert: "After picking up the products at MacWorld SF, I've been asking IRIS tech support for nearly 2 weeks without success. They keep saying they'll set up a ftp for me and never seem to get around to it."
    This is EXACTLY my experience too. And no, I'm not Glenn. Bought it at Macworld, they didn't have the right software, but promised to email me a download link - and never did. I tried to get it to work with the included software and only crashed my computer hard a few times. There aren't many apps that manage to do that on a Mac. That thing has been sitting around useless ever since. See pic. Anyone need a cheap IrisPen? Will take first offer!
  • Fabian Fang: "I feel honored that ... I did receive a relatively prompt e-mail confirmation. The fact that, two weeks later, I have yet to receive the product, is something else, I guess."
  • Joe Wicentowski: "Here's my convoluted experience purchasing and installing the IRISPen ... having spent a few hours just installing the darn thing,"
  • kerasmus76: "Yes, It's amazing how disorganized they are."
  • JackT: "We couldn't make the readiris9/asian work because we followed the incorrect installation instructions exactly."
  • Andrew Main: "In days I finally received a shipment from IRIS, but it contained the wrong product. For now I am the proud owner of an IRIS Business Card Reader for Macintosh, for which I have no use. Don't say that Heather did not warn us about their ineptness."
  • Heather Collins: "I also have a dark gray pen and a light gray pen. I need to find out which one is best. I have these because two out of three items were shipped wrong.",
    "The installation documentation is wrong.",
    "I think they are desperate for sales and cash flow and that's why the documentation is so poor."
Granted, these are dated, but the Yahoo list I got the quotes from closed in 2006, so I stopped following it. You can find newer IRIS tales of horror at their new Google group if you care looking.

Why am I not surprised that you now seek the company of Acai pill slingers and get-rich-quick pushers who you'll never hear from again after they took your cash? Seems like you fit right in here!

You know why other tech companies like Apple came back from near extinction and now kick everyones ass in the market place? Not because they have the most affiliates and the highest commissions (where's the Apple affiliate program?), but because they make innovative, first-class products that work. Because they invest their high margins instead in R&D, design and, yes, support!

aI6XY.jpg


If you want to PM me your contact info I will make sure you get a call back from a tech support manager.
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I emailed with Jeremie Sala and Jean-Marc Fontaine (guy who sold me this junk) as late as Dec 2008. You really think you can actually find someone who cares?

BTW, wanna make more money than you'll ever make at IRIS? I have a great plan I can send you - make $11,384 a month working for Google only three hours a day posting links!! Get my plan for free, just pay $1.99 shipping, hahaha!
 
BTW, Jean-Marc Fontaine = Director of Sales and Operations, North America. I still have his card. You think you can get me someone better than that?
 
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