I work a niche where I generate leads that are worked by an off-line business I own. I am looking to possibly create an affiliate program, where we will compensate for leads based on the performance of the lead. If the lead decideds to purchase we could pay upwards of $250 per converting lead. What would be the best way to track this? I could offer a form - that would label each lead as they are entered?
People normally would use an affiliate network/cpa network to do this as it they do most of the work for you and are normally trusted in the webmaster world and already have an affiliate base to work with. If you don't go that root then the another way which is a way that many others also use is to purchase some affiliate program software. Here is an example of some affiliate software that can be purchased online where you can either host it on your own server and manage it yourself or have it remotely hosted and managed for you. Although the 2nd option is a cheaper solution, it also means that you are required to do the work or more work. Now when it comes to tracking, what you normally do is have a form and then once someone submits the informaiton in that form, it brings up another page that says something like "thanks for your submission", on this page, that's normally where you will track the lead. So if someone didn't land on that page then that really means they didn't full in the application to get to that page meaning no lead was made. Although saying this, you have to monitor each lead that comes from your affiliates to prevent fraud. Good luck.
there are two ways to do this, find an "affiliate software" tracking package on the web or you can add your program to one of the networks out their such as Commission Junction or Linkshare. going the affiliate software package route will be alot more work because you'll have to write your own checks, and all the other labor that comes with the program. if you go with a network they do all that stuff for you.