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MenuWhat affiliate marketing platforms do you suggest using to scale quickly for an early start-up? CJ, Linkshare, Clickbank, or Shareasale, and why?
Looking to move from an affiliate agency to internalize the process and build key relationships with publishers/influencers.
Answers
It depends on the stage of your company, your vertical, and finally, your budget.
All of the aforementioned networks have hundreds of thousands of affiliates, but finding those key affiliates who will help you move the needle is a challenge - regardless of the network. It's a long slow process, that can take months to cultivate.
CJ is the largest network, but also one of the more expensive options. Typical costs would run ~10k/year w/setup and monthly minimums. They cater to e-commerce sites doing at least 1mm+/year in sales. They offer full service management.
Linkshare is one of the larger networks, but is also relatively expensive. I'm not sure how their pricing model compares to CJ, but from clients I've talked to, it's comparable. Like CJ, they cater to sites doing 1mm+/year in sales. They offer full service management.
Shareasale is much less expensive - $650 setup fee, and $35/mo (I think) or 20% of affiliate commissions (whichever is greater). They cater to small to mid-sized online merchants (but work w/larger merchants, too). They don't offer full service management, but do offer services/products to get you in front of affiliates (e.g. targeted emails, etc.)
ClickBank is best for digital goods. Like Shareasale, it's mostly self service, but relatively inexpensive to start.
Moving from an agency to an internal team can be a good move if you have the internal resources to recruit, train, retain your affiliates.
Best of luck with your program transition!
Best,
Jeremy
I support Jeremy's answer above. To add: You might want to check out Impact Radius as a platform. It's not a network (well they have a marketplace - but for the sake of this example let's keep it simple) and if the impetus is bringing it in-house, I make the assumption you have the staff and expertise to do the recruiting, affiliate promotion optimization and other responsibilities of making it a worthy and profitable program.
Here if you have any questions!
I don't suggest any affiliate networks as a tool to "scale quickly" that is not the purpose of affiliate marketing or even these networks and chances are that if you don't have the relationships in place already, you will fail at this attempt.
You need to establish the relationships first... and that is not "scalable" you have to put in the work to build key influencers as brand ambassadors and then move into affiliate marketing.
I recommend embassador! We use it for OneMonth
http://learncode.unthink.me
They are great!
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There is a lot of points in your question which unless someone has the exact same setup as you - I don't think you will get the answers you are looking for. I believe you should limit it by asking yourself: What is the ONE thing the MLM plugin I am looking for can do so that it achieves the maximum amount of result to my business by using it? IMHO - it would be the ability to set commissions for the products you sell and award commissions to those affiliates that actually earn you sales. All other features, while nice, are ancillary features that from the perspective of the affiliate - don't really need in order to be successful. In that regard - I would suggest https://affiliatewp.com/. When it comes to running affiliate programs on WP sites, it wins out as the best in my experience. Hope this helps! Glad to assist any further if you need help.TB
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How do you approach an influencer, a "guru" or a podcaster /blogger in your niche offering a commission without being too direct?
Do the opposite. Think about it from their point of view. They get requests like these all the time and most of the time the request comes from random people they don't know. That would be kind of annoying right? You get an email from someone you don't know but they want you to do something for them? You'd delete that email too. Best way to get their attention...get a referral from someone they know and trust. Get someone else they know and trust to introduce you (this is the whole reason I built my business www.reverralriver.com). Referrals work the best. Second best way...develop a relationship with them before asking for anything. Don't email and ask for something right away. You wouldn't ask someone to marry you on a first date would you? Develop the relationship slowly. Give them value before ever asking for anything in return. Over just a few short weeks you could easily establish a relationship to the point where you could actually mention an "ask" which should be very open-ended and create absolutely zero work/friction for the person you are asking. One of my favorite techniques to warm-up a relationship...just email and tell them you appreciated (insert an article they wrote or service they provide, whatever, just stroke their ego). Tell them you're a fan and often point people their way. Then go way above and beyond and find their physical mailing address (it's not that hard to do) and send them a small gift or hand-written postcard in the mail just to say thanks. Then email them once you know they got it and just say thanks again. Then start emailing them various articles or things they might think are valuable, I'd say no more than once every 4 days. Connect on LinkedIN and message them funny pictures or GIF's. Show them you're human. Make them laugh and smile and just say "Hey I appreciate all you've done so just wanted to return the favor and make you smile (insert funny GIF here)". Then, once they know who you are, don't ask them directly to partner...ask them if they know anyone who would be interested in partnering. Below is a template I've used with great success...and the beauty is that they will often ask for more info and get interested themselves, but usually only if you have offered them some sort of value to stand out amongst the crowd. --- Hey (prospect first name), Hope you laughed at the last GIF I sent. I was just wondering if you knew anyone that would be interested in a partnership/affiliate opportunity… Real quick summary… I’m building a SaaS that automates the process of asking for referrals…it uses artificial intelligence to find potential leads in your existing customers network and makes it super simple for your customers to make the referral (one click of a button). If you know anyone that has an audience of people that would benefit from something like this I'd be grateful for an intro. I won't let you down I promise if you can make an intro. I’ll draft up all the marketing material and do all of the work, so all they would have to do is say “ok”, hit copy, paste, and send and I’d be happy to pay them 25% commission for life (or if there is another payment structure in mind I’m happy to talk about it) So what do you think? Can you help me out? Thanks, Parker ---- If you found this useful please upvote. Book a call with me if you want to know more or if I can help further.PW
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I can help you with some real downloads that would get you Guaranteed App Reviews (Anywhere between 20-1000 App Reviews) Reviews drive the most number of future downloads. Feel Free to talk to me about this opportunity.EL
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