

Marketing Your Startup Using Affiliate Programs - eibrahim
http://www.emadibrahim.com/2008/10/09/marketing-your-services-using-affiliate-programs/

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il
I have a lot of experience with affiliate marketing(as an affiliate), and I
think you should strongly consider a CPA rather than CPS model. Very very few
affiliate programs, even ones with recurring monthly income pay their
affiliates recurring payouts. Most pay a fixed one-time payment for acquiring
the customer. For a site like yours, the industry standard would be paying
about $2 for every free signup, or, alternatively paying $50-$100 per
paid/free trial signup. The exact numbers will of course vary with your
conversion rate and what's profitable for both you and the affiliate. That
way, you don't get a recurring drain on your revenue, and affiliates see more
money right away. Keep in mind that most affiliates market via paid search or
contextual advertising, which means heavy initial cash outlays. As an
affiliate, I want to see profit within a few days of running a campaign, and
if I don't I drop promoting that offer.

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vaksel
The %s are more or less standard. The thing is...you need to base the % on how
easy it is for the affiliate to make money. I mean your microblogging site I
can't really see someone making 100 sign ups in a month. So you need to give
more. 37signals on the other hand has products that are a) popular b) easy to
sell, so for them the % is smaller.

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eibrahim
I see your points but let me just clarify that they don't have to get a 100
new customers every month... they just have to do it once and they get paid
$3000 EVERY month. And if they get more, they make more or they could entirely
stop marketing it and still make the $3000 every month.

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sfamiliar
personally, i'd kick in the affiliate revenue if and only if the customer
lasted for three months, since your first month is free. bonus/customer in
line with your tiered pricing, continuing revenue ftw.

also, clean up your website some. it's not awful, just looks a shade shy of
professional.

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eibrahim
thanks for your comments. I tried so hard to make the site look as
professional as possible. Is there anything specific that makes it look
"unprofessional"?

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cdr
There's way too much garbage and noise on the right hand side - those two
columns are more than half as big as the content area. Try one column, and cut
some of that out.

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eibrahim
Are you referring to www.emadibrahim.com? I think the previous comment was in
reference to www.yonklyapp.com

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cdr
I am. The other website looks ok, if not very polished.

