Negotiating the Affiliate Deal
So you have prooved to your merchant or affiliate company that you can deliver the goods and sales, what do you do now:
Forget it and move onto the next project
Give the affiliate manager grief and tell him if he doesn't pay you more then he get go and jump
Plead for more money
Ask the aff manager what he would be prepared to do if you could do more volume.
I knwo most affiliates just move on to the next project, but is that the right way?
DougS
- Y! MyWeb
> move on to the next project
but is that the right way
Maybe I'm rationalizing my behavior, but I don't ask for sweetheart deals because I know that they tend to bind me tighter to the merchant --if only because the revenue I generate becomes more significant. I like the freedom to walk without saying good-bye.
Moving on
Hello RC
But what anout tying yourself closer to the merchant and asking them for access to their keyword data and tracking that no one else gets. ie Give me some help on what things are good earners for yourselves, give me the data and I'll get you more traffic in that area.
DougS
Hey Doug. No, I just like
Hey Doug.
No, I just like keeping everything at arm's length (much of the reasoning behind this goes back to years of experience as a wholesaler in the bricks world) --every favor, special access, or even friendship comes with a subtle, hidden lien.
Oddly enough, the "hidden liability" of sweetheart deals was just a topic in some on-going negotiations regarding a site sale. The due-diligence team was very concerned that the buyer would not be able to sustain revenues if the site changed hands ...until I told them that these were aff packages straight off the shelf.
What is it YOU bring to the table???
asking them for access to their KW data and tracking that no one else gets.
wtf
You get nothing for a sweet deal !!!
YOU offer something !!!
Hey, AM "I have 1st page Yahoo! for the one word term "whatever".
"Do you want me to do it for you"
I will listen & meet you in person & you get on my aol/im
I give NO FREE TOOLS
Depends
Depends on the situation. Most of the time, I am seriously lacking on time. If an affiliate manager wants me to put promoting their company to the head of my line, or put harder promotion effort into bringing them even more traffic then I already am, then bottom line is that it has to be worth it for me to move them ahead of whatever else I am doing.
But, I'm also not going to extort them. Pay me well, treat me well, pay me on time and I'll remain. I don't have time to always be looking for a better deal. If you make me, I will, but for the most part, as long as I've got a fair deal, I'm going to go about my merry way. That said, I receive higher than base commission from most of my merchants. But, I've never asked for it. They offer it. If you bring in mass sales, they're usually more than willing to treat you very well without you needing to demand it.
>>give me the data and I'll get you more traffic in that area
Touchy area. On one hand, its smart business to tell me what keywords/areas are going to make me the most money. It means more sales for the merchant and more money for me. The more money a program can make me, the more of my time it gets.
But, at the same time - the whole point of affiliates to a merchant is to get additional sales they aren't getting on their own. What makes an affiliate good is the ability to be ingenuitive, versatile and think outside the box - and a merchant can't supply me with those qualities.
I'm a professional. Any information a merchant can offer me is certainly appreciated, but this is my business - not theirs. I'm not going to, and don't need to, depend on the merchant's help to make sales.
Affiliate Managers are a funny lot..
...by and large have little real room for movement in the area I am involved in (travel)
They seem to divide into two, one half never even reply to you, the other half want you to push their product without any real incentive to do so (God, I am cynical)
An interesting Mexican standoff came with a major hotel chain, with whom I have a direct account, only being prepared to offer me x%, while I can get (x+50)% from one of the major aff travel sites - OK I bring other business to them too. I therefore switched to aff travel site as supplier - hotel chain notice a considerable fall off in my business, want to know why, but are unable to match what I can get on sending the same business to them indirectly. Rules be rules
Whilst my business being sent to the hotel chain directly was fairly large (seven figures gross, per year), it did not match the sort of figures the major aff site sends them. Therefore they (obviously) offer them more. And end up paying around twice as much commission as if they dealt directly with me. Funny old world!
But, as earlier posters have said, you do not spend time arguing, you make your point and move on. As I said to them, us affiliates are like Pavlovs dogs, we respond to stimuli.
maybe a different way
We have been working very very close with large merchants and have found that some have no interest in helping us....these don't get much extra focus....but we have several who actually will tell us the produts that move the best and that they make the most margin in. We even have one who gives us special deals on certain products and the list of master words that they have.
Admittedly these "special" deals have taken a lot of talking, meetings and delivering of substantial volume. In one case we even go the plc to link from their front page to our affiliate site, I asked for it and they agreed which even shocked me:) But no complaints:)
But I will say these deals are the exceptions, we have 2 or 3 out of a few dozen. But then you can guess where we put our focus.
DougS
acting as a merchant
We also act as a merchant, so what would people expect to see from merchants?
DougS
It's just business
I get the traffic and rankings first and then I talk money. I never try to blackmail or strong arm anyone. If they are a good merchant or affiliate manager I will probably deal with them on another project and reputation is very important in the affiliate world. I will just ask if they can increase the commission thus giving me an incentive to build more sites or make the program multi-tier so I can recruit fellow affiliates. I try to offer win-win situations so it is easy for them to agree. I try to give the current program an opportunity to match a new offer I get. If they can't match the better offer - see ya later. Nothing personal it is just business. I need to ensure that I make as much money as possible so I can retire to that mansion in Beverly Hills. I can't afford to waste time on affiliate programs that offer second rate compensation.
Lazy Affiliate's Advice to Merchants
Affiliates want to maximize their revenue and minimize their work and costs. As one affiliate said "Us affiliates are lazy, we don't want to do work, make it easy for us to do business". Here is a short checklist of what I look for in new affiliate programs.
.
You'll notice I place high payout towards the bottom. High payouts are very important to me, but if a merchant makes too many rules, goes out of business or skims my sales I will never see the money. Also you'll notice I didn't place even place data feeds or tools on the list. That's because I know search engines better than the merchants. I can research the keywords and build my own tools better than anything I could get from a merchant. Also merchants generally over distribute the data and tools thus making them worthless.
ps affiliate managers do get bonus points when they send surprise gifts like steaks, cigars, wine etc.
pps affiliate managers get real bonus points when they monitor my traffic and proactively increase the commission, money is better than any gift
>just give me the money and d
just give me the money and don't bother me
Same here. My other two requirements:
- TRUSTWORTHY
- Dependable
AM's and merchants should also understand that money isn't always the motivator. Some affs are simply hooked on the game and scoring is kept by ranking and traffic and the by-product is money. (Though I will admit that when I first started there were more in it just for the game than now.)
lazy
Professional affs also tend to be aware of the 80/20 rule. http://www.public.asu.edu/~dmuthua/pareto's_principle.html
"a small number of causes is responsible for a large percentage of the effect, in a ratio of about 20:80"
Personally, I've modified Pareto's Rule to weigh diminishing returns and believe it can be more like 5:60.
5:60
RC
Don't you mean
5:95?
DougS
te he
DougS
So sorry to have come out swinging about your 1st post.
I think that we agree and rc has some good points also.
The more I do the AM thing the more I think it's 90/10
80% never send ANY traffic
70% never even test their affiliate link even once.
What a waste of everyones time......
No problems MrMackin
:)
Most affiliates do nothing, similar to life.
DougS