merchant services: own personal affiliate program

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ssandaltan

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Jan 20, 2010
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ive been trying to work this out for a couple of weeks now.

my company sells legal services. i want to implement my own affiliate program where i pay people to refer paying clients to me.

my market is specific.

i dont know how to properly credit referrals/keep track of what i owe affiliates/know that a referral i get is from a specific affiliate (you get the idea).

anyone have any ideas or leads or links or something to point me in the right direction?

also, 1st post. please be nice :)
 


ssandaltan said:
also, 1st post. please be nice :)
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You're seeking advice on how to properly track and pay affiliates what they are owed, I doubt anyone would be pissed off at you for trying to figure this all out. It might help if you let us know more about how your affiliate program is structured. Do they sign up on your website? Is it all local lead gen? Stuff like that. Have you looked in to phone number tracking. I'm sure someone else here could be more specific, but I know there are systems out there that can track which affiliate referred a client to you based on the number the client called.
 
JarredLv said:
You're seeking advice on how to properly track and pay affiliates what they are owed, I doubt anyone would be pissed off at you for trying to figure this all out. It might help if you let us know more about how your affiliate program is structured. Do they sign up on your website? Is it all local lead gen? Stuff like that. Have you looked in to phone number tracking. I'm sure someone else here could be more specific, but I know there are systems out there that can track which affiliate referred a client to you based on the number the client called.
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actually im starting from scratch. as it is, all my sales are generated through unsolicited word-of-mouth referrals from clients. i have no affiliate program in place right now.

i dont even have a website at the moment (thought i should) - by the way, can anyone recommend me a good and easy to use site builder? that would be great.

what im really hoping to be able to do is, for example, offer a $100 referral commission to anyone who refers me a paying client to complete, say, a business formation. i would do that in a heartbeat if i only knew the proper way to go about tracking affiliate referrals.

thanks!
 
by the way, can anyone recommend me a good and easy to use site builder? that would be great.
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You probably will not get anywhere worthwhile with a so called "site-builder". Especially if you want to attract more than just local affiliates. If you have a shitty website and/or look like a joke of a company online, chances are no one is going to waste their time/bust their ass trying to generate leads for you.

Splurge a little - spend some hundies and have it done the right way. It will pay in the long run, trust me. Talk to some people in the buy/sell/trade section - or even do some due dilligence on some online/local development/design companies. Chances are even a consultation with an individual/company is going to prove more worthy than throwing up a site with a fisher price site-maker type deal.

On to your affiliate network....

Like Jarred said, you really need to figure out what type of affiliates model you are going after, and there are multiple methods on how you can track conversions, and also what type of content/creatives you want to offer your affiliates.
 
KaniGT5 said:
You probably will not get anywhere worthwhile with a so called "site-builder". Especially if you want to attract more than just local affiliates. If you have a shitty website and/or look like a joke of a company online, chances are no one is going to waste their time/bust their ass trying to generate leads for you.

Splurge a little - spend some hundies and have it done the right way. It will pay in the long run, trust me. Talk to some people in the buy/sell/trade section - or even do some due dilligence on some online/local development/design companies. Chances are even a consultation with an individual/company is going to prove more worthy than throwing up a site with a fisher price site-maker type deal.

On to your affiliate network....

Like Jarred said, you really need to figure out what type of affiliates model you are going after, and there are multiple methods on how you can track conversions, and also what type of content/creatives you want to offer your affiliates.
Click to expand...

thanks for the advice.

would you be able to point me to where i can learn more about possible affiliate models?

thanks again.
 
Pay someone to make your website. Seriously.

And for the affiliate tracking stuff, check out hasoffers.com, they allow you to start your own affiliate network for next to nothing.
 
You'll definitely want to have a quality, reputable website. You'll also want to have a couple of variations of landing pages for affiliates to use and split test yourself. Don't just use a contact form on your main website.

Also, make sure you get at least one set of creatives (preferably more) and cover the top 6-9 IAB ad sizes. Having options on banner sizes helps you have more visibility options with paid traffic and publishers.

You can use something like Post Affiliate Pro for tracking on the back end if it's a small program and you're processing all the leads yourself. If you plan on driving serious traffic, definitely get setup at a boutique network/agency that can handle all of this for you.

I'd also run with a scalable hosting service like Media Temple or Wired Tree or a dedicated managed server. The grid and vm services are generally lower cost and easy to manage, with 100% up time (in my experience).
 
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