I'm in the process of coding my own affiliate system for my site (see sig), because I really don't need to pay a third party to handle anything. However, I'm trying to determine what I should offer as a commission rate. My site is a marketplace for buying and selling text ads, where we keep a small percentage of all ad credit bought. So, I was thinking, I would pay my affiliates 10% of all purchases made with their affiliate id. Is 10% a good number for the marketing industry I am in? Thoughts?
Have you thought about looking at your competition and see how much they offer. That's what most affiliate program owners would do.
Ya, I have. Most of them offer vouchers good for 100% free ad credit. But, as a small company with new cash assets, I can't exactly do that right off the bat. Google, for example, gives out $100 vouchers to new customers without any purchase required. TextAdMarket is in beta mode and is brand spankin' new. So, that wouldn't be financially worthwhile at the moment. 10% is enough of an incentive for blog owners and a few people to place links in their forum sigs. I have a handful of affiliate signups already, so it must be a decent offer.