Hi All, A friend of mine makes and sells hand made jewellery. They have just finished building a website (previously it was an ebay business) and as the website gets zero traffic they want to set up an affiliate scheme to get some business to the site. Could anyone offer any tips about how best to track the conversions? I assume most schemes work by giving some sort of code to the affiliates? I've not really been involved in these sort of schemes so I have little advice that I can offer them. I'm hoping that the members on here will have more experience.
It seems that you want to use affiliate tracking software. There is reviews of some good software here. There is quite some work involved in marketing your own affiliate program and also keeping it going. So if you don't have the time then maybe you should try someone that will manage it for you like an affiliate network. Good luck with this.
I think it depends on how many affiliates you are looking for. If you are only looking for small numbers then you may be able to manage it yourself with a spreadsheet. You could track conversions by use of coupon codes that give a small discount on the website, with a different coupon code per affiliate you should be able to track it. I think its a question of scale and of course don't forget the additional cost of managing the affiliates.