I am considering starting my own affiliate program. Can anyone recommend affiliate software, or software review sites I could visit please?
There is no one size fits all program. What one merchant or AM considers the best may not be best for you. If you tell us a little more: what market? pay per sale or per lead or both? budget? we can maybe give you some better answers. Peter's site has the best reviews: http://www.affiliate-software-review.com But again the best software depends on what you are trying to do.
I realize my question was of the "How long is a piece of string" type. Basically, I am selling links in my directory. Affiliates would earn a percentage of each sale. I am planning to use a percentage rather than a fixed amount, as that way the amount received will alter if I alter the pricing. Budget? Don't really know yet. Not too much, at least initially whilst I see how it goes, so software that could be upgraded to a better version would be good. May do a two tier program, but I'm uncertain on that until I hear back from PayPal, which is my chosen merchant program.
You can try JAM (Jrox affiliate manager). Its free at first till you attract 250 affiliates. Here's my Jrox Affiliate Management program review
I'm looking at Jam and it looks quite nice, but one thing I don't like about it is that it's encoded. I know this is done to stop people stealing scripts, but it limits customization, and if the manufacturer stops providing tech support for any reason, you've got a serious problem.
I use ButterFly Marketing but it isn't cheap... and you may not need all those functions. But I do love them
You can change the look and feel of the script from what I know...there's a themes folder and it's not encoded..you can easily change stuff around in the present theme or make your own..(mine isn't iverly customized).As far as support goes...currently the support is great and because the script is not just a freebie script..it's monetized I'd expect support to be there...it's mostly with the freebie scripts that you lose support...
True. That's why I've aquired a dislike for encoded scripts. I think I'd rather pay more to get an unencoded version.
qualityunit has one for less than 100. run it on your own php enabled server. one feature it is lacking is the ability to have search engine friendly product tracking links. $99 http://www.netpaths.net/webdesign/postaffiliatepro.html
I think you must check out the Affiliate Pro script..its in PHP and highly customizable or perhaps you can even try out the iDevAffiliate. Both of them come for under $100 with free installation I guess. I am myself looking for an affiliate program for my new Audio Book store..and these seem to be the best so far!