Behind the Scenes: Tips from Affiliate Managers (1)

How to make sure your affiliate partnership request is approved by the vendors

Before an interview for a job, university acceptance, membership to a super private club or whatever else you may want to obtain, it’s always ideal if you can talk to an insider, to properly prepare yourself for success :). In a similar manner, this article aims to offer you inside information about top vendors that are open to partnership requests from Avangate affiliates.
We asked some of the top vendors in the Avangate Affiliate Network about their expectations from new affiliates: how can they be convinced to accept you, what turns them off and what is their number one advice to you as affiliate to sell more of their products.
We got some great answers from:

• Claire Waledisch, Commercial Manager at VSO-Software,
• Frank Chang, Marketing Manager at DVDFab,
• Keros Tudos, Relationship Manager at IObit and
• Alex Lamba, CEO at RSJoomla!

So, here are their tips on how to make sure you will be accepted as an affiliate (can be applied to most software vendors):
1. What are 3 qualities you look for when analyzing a partnership request from an affiliate?

• VSO: The main thing we look at is the website associated with it.  Does it look clean, does it have any traffic and would the targeted traffic be interested in our products?  This means nothing however, as we have good affiliates in the past that either do not have a real website or haven’t yet finished it at the time they requested to be an affiliate.
• DVDFab: Affiliate website; Affiliate IDs (normally – the smaller, the better); Potential.
• IObit: We will firstly analyze his website based on three aspects:  the  category, the traffic rankings and the source of the traffic. This will allow us to provide the best suitable plan accordingly and calculate the affiliate’s earnings prospect.
• RSJoomla: The website has to be related to IT/software. Creating your own text about our products rather than copying it from our website really improves the chances to be found by greater audience. Product reviews and blog posts usually are the best ways to do so. Targeted communities or local communities that use our products usually get the most of the affiliate partnership.

2. What are the most common reasons for rejecting an affiliate partnership request?

• VSO: We do not reject affiliate partnership requests, we have not yet needed to.  However, if an affiliate does not go by the rules we have outlined, we will lower their commission.
• DVDFab: Spam promotion or violating our affiliate policy.
• IObit: Websites containing inappropriate content, malicious websites and illegal websites will be rejected. Affiliates without clear profiles will also lead to a rejection.
• RSJoomla: Websites that share false discount coupons or warez get rejected.

3. Do you have any special policies regarding pay-per-click advertising done by affiliates?

• VSO: We request affiliates not to use our brand name when doing pay-per-click advertising, i.e. VSO or VSO-Software. Eventually this will also be applied to product brand names. Affiliates should have the role of making the product known, offering it as a solution when user is looking for a tool to use to do a certain task. If a user is looking for “Product Name XYZ” because they already know of it, then the affiliate here does not really have a role in terms or advertising unless of course that vendor site is not appearing in an organic search. If the affiliate is providing added value then this argument could be contested. Added value content would be landing pages in specific languages that do not exist on vendors site, guides, coupons, etc.
• DVDFab: Currently, we don’t allow our affiliates to use PPC program on search engines to promote DVDFab products
• IObit: Our affiliates can promote our products through PPC, but it is not allowed to use our trademarks or any IObit product names as PPC keywords, for this is against our policy and the law.
• RSJoomla: We don’t have any special policy on the pay-per-click thing. Affiliates can use any politically correct marketing strategies to get more sales.

So, to put this in a nutshell, when requesting partnerships with software vendors, make sure your website has relevant content and it doesn’t violate the vendor’s affiliate policies, especially if you’re running pay-per-click advertising campaigns. If you don’t use a website for your affiliate marketing business, let the vendor know this.
Also, always communicate with the vendor – let him know how you’re promoting their products and ask if you have certain requirements.
We have more to share: stay tuned for the next part of this Behind the Scenes series!

What Does it Take to Sell through Affiliates? Part One – Affiliates Info Page

Lots of software vendors ask themselves this question and, unfortunately, I’ve seen cases when the conclusion they reach is that “affiliate marketing doesn’t work” or as Joel Spolsky says, in his case, it’s “ a big waste of time“.
Both for these vendors and for the ones that think their affiliate sales channel could be improved and seeing the positive feedback I got from our software publishers regarding the issue of vendor involvement to motivate affiliates, I’m starting a series of posts with a more hands-on approach. I hope you will find them useful.

Affiliates Info Page

The first thing I’m going to talk about is what you can do in order to help potential affiliates find you and join your affiliate program, thus maximizing the chances to sell more using this channel.
The easiest way to advertise your affiliate plan is to have an affiliate information page on your website, which should explain clearly and concisely what your affiliate program is all about.
Think at it this way: affiliates reach your website when they’re searching for your products or for products from the same category. They are more likely to become affiliates of a vendor who knows to present them this opportunity at the right time, since they don’t have very much time to search how to become one’s affiliate partner. So why not take this chance and enroll them into your affiliate program?
It’s recommended you include on this page details like:

• the commission(s) – base commission, commissioning schemes, etc. “What’s in it for me?” is the first question that pops into an affiliate marketer’s mind when deciding whether to join or not an affiliate program. Usually, base commissions for software start from 20% but, naturally, they are concordant to the price range of the products.
• tracking details – cookie duration time and, generally, the period of time in which the affiliate will be credited for a previously referred customer. These usually start from 30 days upwards and in the software field, the bigger the cookie duration, the better for the affiliates. Geno Prussakov offers some interesting statistics about the customer return rates over a period of time.
• payment frequency – how often will you pay your affiliates? How can they receive their money? (wire transfer, prepaid debit card, PayPal, etc.) The more payment options you have, affiliates are more likely to join your program.
• the affiliate network(s) you are using for your program – some affiliates may be confused when they click the sign up button and find themselves on another website. To avoid this, it’s best you specify your affiliate network provider (such as Avangate).
• the sign-up link (and page) – this is the thing that matters the most and you must not forget about it. If you’re using an affiliate network, it’s best if you can customize the sign up page to resemble your website from the same reasons as stated above.

Also, affiliates will appreciate it if you include other useful info on the dedicated page, such as:

• contact information – it’s best you use a special email address for affiliate matters, like “affiliates@company.com” or the email address of the affiliate manager in your company .
• other advantages they will get by joining – e.g. marketing materials (banners, text descriptions), live support from you / the affiliate network, etc.
• links to PAD files – these are extremely helpful for download portals – will be discussed in the second part of this blog series.

I think it’s not necessary to talk about the advantages you get by implementing an affiliate info page from the search engines’ point of view… Just to be sure – potential affiliates will find you easier :)

How Do Other Software Companies Do It?

But enough with the theory- let’s see and analyze some examples:
1. Iobit has a basic affiliate section included on a more general partners page. The most important elements are present – the commission level and the sign up link.

2. In the case of VSO Software, the affiliate information page is very comprehensive, including all things that may concern affiliates. They work with multiple affiliate networks and they included specific details for each one. Also, marketing materials, PAD files and contact information is included on that page.

3. AVS4YOU has a step-by-step like affiliate information page, in which they make it easy for affiliates to become their affiliates. They also work with multiple affiliate networks and have specific buy links for affiliates.

4. Here’s an interesting approach – nice aired design with benefits outlined and social media contacts on Lavasoft’s affiliate information page.

If you aren’t convinced yet that affiliate marketing does work if you get involved into it, I have 2 more posts to convince you. ;) Stay tuned!

What Does it Take to Sell through Affiliates? Part One – Affiliates Info Page

Lots of software vendors ask themselves this question and, unfortunately, I’ve seen cases when the conclusion they reach is that “affiliate marketing doesn’t work” or as Joel Spolsky says, in his case, it’s “ a big waste of time“.
Both for these vendors and for the ones that think their affiliate sales channel could be improved and seeing the positive feedback I got from our software publishers regarding the issue of vendor involvement to motivate affiliates, I’m starting a series of posts with a more hands-on approach. I hope you will find them useful.

Affiliates Info Page

The first thing I’m going to talk about is what you can do in order to help potential affiliates find you and join your affiliate program, thus maximizing the chances to sell more using this channel.
The easiest way to advertise your affiliate plan is to have an affiliate information page on your website, which should explain clearly and concisely what your affiliate program is all about.
Think at it this way: affiliates reach your website when they’re searching for your products or for products from the same category. They are more likely to become affiliates of a vendor who knows to present them this opportunity at the right time, since they don’t have very much time to search how to become one’s affiliate partner. So why not take this chance and enroll them into your affiliate program?
It’s recommended you include on this page details like:

• the commission(s) – base commission, commissioning schemes, etc. “What’s in it for me?” is the first question that pops into an affiliate marketer’s mind when deciding whether to join or not an affiliate program. Usually, base commissions for software start from 20% but, naturally, they are concordant to the price range of the products.
• tracking details – cookie duration time and, generally, the period of time in which the affiliate will be credited for a previously referred customer. These usually start from 30 days upwards and in the software field, the bigger the cookie duration, the better for the affiliates. Geno Prussakov offers some interesting statistics about the customer return rates over a period of time.
• payment frequency – how often will you pay your affiliates? How can they receive their money? (wire transfer, prepaid debit card, PayPal, etc.) The more payment options you have, affiliates are more likely to join your program.
• the affiliate network(s) you are using for your program – some affiliates may be confused when they click the sign up button and find themselves on another website. To avoid this, it’s best you specify your affiliate network provider (such as Avangate).
• the sign-up link (and page) – this is the thing that matters the most and you must not forget about it. If you’re using an affiliate network, it’s best if you can customize the sign up page to resemble your website from the same reasons as stated above.

Also, affiliates will appreciate it if you include other useful info on the dedicated page, such as:

• contact information – it’s best you use a special email address for affiliate matters, like “affiliates@company.com” or the email address of the affiliate manager in your company .
• other advantages they will get by joining – e.g. marketing materials (banners, text descriptions), live support from you / the affiliate network, etc.
• links to PAD files – these are extremely helpful for download portals – will be discussed in the second part of this blog series.

I think it’s not necessary to talk about the advantages you get by implementing an affiliate info page from the search engines’ point of view… Just to be sure – potential affiliates will find you easier :)

How Do Other Software Companies Do It?

But enough with the theory- let’s see and analyze some examples:
1. Iobit has a basic affiliate section included on a more general partners page. The most important elements are present – the commission level and the sign up link.

2. In the case of VSO Software, the affiliate information page is very comprehensive, including all things that may concern affiliates. They work with multiple affiliate networks and they included specific details for each one. Also, marketing materials, PAD files and contact information is included on that page.

3. AVS4YOU has a step-by-step like affiliate information page, in which they make it easy for affiliates to become their affiliates. They also work with multiple affiliate networks and have specific buy links for affiliates.

4. Here’s an interesting approach – nice aired design with benefits outlined and social media contacts on Lavasoft’s affiliate information page.

If you aren’t convinced yet that affiliate marketing does work if you get involved into it, I have 2 more posts to convince you. ;) Stay tuned!