do affiliates programs work?

[matto]

Afternoon all,

glad this forum has come up, i've been looking for info on affiliate programs for ages, but all i seem to find are companies that are promoting themselves and spamming newsgroups! Does anyone have an objective opinion as tp their effectiveness? We're a UK based online retailer for the record.

Cheers,

Matto

[Christian_SEO]

Since you are retailer, I assume you are looking for an affiliate program to join so affiliates promote your products...
and not join a program to promote the products of others?

I would talk to a good Internet/marketing consultant. Many companies turn to affilates for marketing before exploring other methods that would allow you to keep more of the revenue and retain all of the control. I would ask about search engine optimisation (SEO), search engine marketing, and all the other fun methods of web marketing. Affiliate marketing would be near the bottom of my list.

Affiliate programs can work well, but you do have some risk of abuse and have to be strict about that. I think there are some good existing service providers, but don't know enough about any to recommend them.

Another option would be to buy or build yourself some affiliate management software and run your own program?

[matto]

Hi Christian,

Apologies, yes it's promoting my products through other web sites that i'm looking to use an affiliate program for.

Search Engine Marketing - including seo, CPC, directory listings, and shopping portal listings are all well underway. I was just curious as to the effectiveness of an affiliate program. The cost of commission isn't an issue as we're a full price retailer so the margins are healthy, and we usually account for a limited cost of sale for each purchase/transaction.

I just can't seem to find anyone who's not from an affiliate marketing company or who doesn't work for an online casino who's got any real objective ideas on the subject!

Any ideas, links, thoughts welcome

Cheers,
Matto

[ripper101]

Hello
I have an online retail store that uses affiliates to promote. I used to be with one of the top three online pharmacies and branched off to form my own company.... we have a great affiliate program. The problem is you need to have good affiliate recording software to help.... we use affiliateshop... take a look at it, I may help you