How can I start a affiliate network? What do I basically need? What are the -ves and +ves. Actual people who have started an affiliate network may not reply this thread. But I want other people's suggestions about this.
If you are talking about starting your own afiliate program is the first think that you need is a product. Make calculation how much you can pay your affiliate partners so that you would make profit and aff partners would earn enought to promote this program. Basicly you have 2 choices how to run it. 1st is that you trust your aff program to a 3th party aff network like clickbank or CJ and they will take care of everything. Not good choice if you are not planing on selling alot of products, because they charge a lot. 2nd choice is that you buy affiliate softwear and you take care of everything. Softwear is not that expensive (100$+ for good one) and most of them are totaly automatic. And the last thing would be promotion of your aff program. That would basicly be all. But if you are talking about starting your affiliate network like ClickBank, CJ, adversal,... Then i can't help you.
Basically you need time, money, staff, quality affiliate network software and merchants that you can full it with and then after that you need the merchants. I can guarantee that any network will fail if you don't have good support. You need to be able to answer prompt emails, offer your phone number and company address on your website plus some messenger contact info like AIM, etc. The better the support, payouts, etc. the more you will grow because of word of mouth.
I too think starting an affiliate network can be good. The only issue I see if being able to offer high payouts is how will you get enough to do so. Its not quite a necessity but I believe great support, excellent payouts and intensive marketing. I suggest that you do a "Tier System" for the advertisers. The more products they sell, the more they must payout. Sure, this is the way things work at all affiliate networks but I'd suggest that you charge the advertiser to possibly join the network. A small fee such as $10 a month could make the difference. You do the math: Let's assume you open and you gain 700 advertisers. That is $7,000 a month for the affiliate network. That should be enough to pay your staff and run your dedicated server. Atleast in my opinion...
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Do you mean affiliate NETWORK or affiliate PROGRAM? I have years in the biz and would not start an affiliate network for all the money in the world. Seriously if someone gave me a million to do it, I'd say NO! It's one of the hardest things to do for a variety of reasons. I assume you mean start your OWN affiliate program, just for your own products? If so there are a variety of ways to do it. Asking "how do I start an affiliate program" is like asking "how do I build a house". It's too big of a question, with too many answers that depend on your situation. What type of house? how big? Whats your budget? Do you already own the land? Some types of affiliate programs and certain types of products could lead to a much different recommendation than others. If you give us a little better idea about what you are trying to do and the type of products we could help you better.
I think this is one of those "don't know, don't ask questions". Theres to much involved to be put in one post.. google is your friend.
Its not hard, just takes alot of time to get started in if I may say so. Problem is people don't put enough time and effort into it so if you put the time and effort into it, its NOT hard... possibly one of the easiest things if I can say so myself.
^^ I beg to differ. I've been in the business field for a while and know that saying "its hard to start and run a affiliate network site" is biased talk. My post wasn't sarcastic. The problem many believe is "if I start a business, I will become rich" when in reality it takes a lot of hard work at the beginning and some solid planning but after its started up and going and your gaining customers, your job slows down some. Think of it like this, its hard at the beginning because you have to: a. Plan your business b. Register your business c. Find employees d. Complete a trial period e. Examine results from your trial period and figure out what changes need to be mad g. Market your business h. Grow your customer base That is just some help. But honestly, its being interpreted as a quick death of a business if an attempt was made at it. I think different, it IS possible to start a affiliate network and it is easy to run one, IF you have the right resources (which take time at the start to find and a little more time running your business to maintain those resources and that they are current.)
I think your posts makes sense for a business in general.. NOT an affiliate network. Do you have any experience with affiliate networks? It takes more than just a-h that you posted.
An affiliate network IS a business. I mean, we could go on and on about this but the bottom line is that affiliate networks are just like every other business out there. It doesn't take much to make it successful 'nor does it require you to stay up 72 hours at a time. Affiliate networks are nothing more then a "general business" so I don't know how you can really say that it is much harder then any other business. Just my .02 cents
^^ Its not what I say, its what I believe is true. Compare affiliate networks to a webhost. They both have the same amount of work and web hosts don't have to do much. But anyway, back on topic...
I can assure you that there is more to Affiliate Networks than a web hosting company (well, good affiliate networks who want to succeed). And yes, there have been times where i have sat on the computer through the night for 30+ hours. But back on topic.. i would recommend a startup budget on $200k easily. Seems extreme, but trust me.. it's not. (Again, i am talking in terms of a company who will commit and wants to grow and succeed).
^^ What I don't get is how your making it seem extremely hard to complete. It is NOT hard, anyone can do it and can succeed. And about an $200k investment, I don't believe that neither. With the right plan you could do it with as little as $75k-$100k And you say that it takes more, well how about explaining the "so much more" it takes?
I really don't know why you are posting in this thread if you don't own a network or have had experience with one (which by your posts i can tell you haven't). Your very misleading.
^^ No, you say its such hard work, explain some of the hard work put into it then? And I am posting in this thread because I've been studying business for some years now and know that it is not hard to run an affiliate network. I may not own a affiliate network but you don't need a college degree to understand that affiliate networks is just another business that requires no more effort then your average business. The only things I believe you need when running a affiliate network is simply being able to satisfy both advertisers and affiliates equally with support. Not to mention you have tax reporting (report to the IRS how much an advertiser or affiliate is making.) Really, its nothing that your average business person can't start and manage...