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I just asked a contact who works at ClickBank. He said it depends on if it is a fairly competitive niche or something less mainstream, and if it is is fairly c
by gotrythis 13y ago
I just asked a contact who works at ClickBank. He said it depends on if it is a fairly competitive niche or something less mainstream, and if it is is fairly competitive, it will get lost among all the other products in a big niche, as people only look at the first couple of pages of results when looking for products. The main takeaway is that there is "basically a zero chance it will just get found and picked up by affiliates without an affiliate recruitment strategy."
He also agrees that "someone asking for 50% is WAY too high" (his caps) and agrees that 10% is more like it, though many affiliate managers also look for a flat fee in case the product doesn't take off, so there is that risk to keep in mind - though it still doesn't seem right.
Here's some things to consider:
1) How long do they get 50% of sales? Forever? Do they keep recruiting forever too? Put a time-limit on this, or an income cap so you can build your business later.
2) Make sure that it's a percentage of sales AFTER commissions, not before. So, like 50% of the sale goes to affiliates, 10% to the affiliate manager, 40% to you, out of which you pay processing costs, etc. Perhaps negotiate it to be after costs as well.
Finding an affiliate manager is hard as they are in demand if they are any good. And what you described is the bare minimum job an affiliate manager does for 10%, though if you can't find anyone else, and they make the difference between success and failure, 50% of something is much better than 0% of nothing.
The short answer is you'll need some way of driving traffic and affiliate marketing is an incredible way to do get quality, warm leads delivered to your site in a hurry. However, good affiliates often/should want to know how well your site converts before sending traffic, so they don't waste an opportunity to sell something else to their list or otherwise don't waste their time, which means finding a way to test it first - like as you planned with adwords.
I could go on about the right way to go about things for hours, but hopefully this is somewhat helpful. If you want to find another affiliate manager, network at Internet marketing conferences.
- gotrythis 13y agoTerminology correction: This person is a JV Broker, not an Affiliate Manager. An affiliate manager recruits new affiliates, communicates and motivates your current ones, etc. A broker connects you with their network. Another question to ask, is if they have any success stories that would merit a 50% cut. If they are cutting their teeth on you, you shouldn't be paying premium rates.
- srgseg 13y agoThank you so much for taking the time to educate us on this. We're going to take your advice and find ourselves a JV broker that can do some quality control and help us safely build our brand. We're not sure where to find one, and no-one is advertising on google for the term "joint venture broker", but we're hoping if we talk to a few big digital marketing agencies that we can get a connection somehow. We'll also try networking at conferences as you've suggested.
- jyu 13y agoWhen anyone makes unverifiable marketing claims in an area that you don't know much about, you're probably getting taken. There are so many ways to get taken advantage of by introducing an affiliate program too early. I think you should have your own conversion data or having in house affiliates before you start an affiliate program so you know how much conversions really cost on some channels, the conversion rates, and the converting keywords. A JV is a term used when you sell your product to someone else's audience (or visa versa). With this arrangement, both of you benefit by profiting from your existing audience, and reaching a new audience cost effectively. The JV Broker puts these two parties together. To do this well, you need to either be buddies with someone that has a massive list or have a product and landing page with a proven track record. When someone with an audience is looking around for new products / offers to test out, they're looking for cues on how that product will do with their audience. People with massive lists do not freely offer up their list to anyone. They are usually inundated with offers, so you need to prove your offer will perform first.
- gotrythis 13y agoYou're welcome. Drop some contact info here and I'll get in touch.
- srgseg 13y agoThanks! Please do contact me via srgseg at yahoo.com (temporary address so it doesn't matter if it gets spammed by crawlers)
- gotrythis 13y agoAnd you have no control over ClickBank affiliates. Everyone is in. If he has contacts, you might want to run your own program where you can let only the selected contacts in.