Affiliate Merchent Question – Affiliate Script

I was on a forum this afternoon and stumbled across a question from a merchant considering an affiliate program.

Before I share my response, I want to point out a common error made by new e commerce owners.

If you are looking for advise on affiliate software you need to ask your marketing team and affiliates not your programmer or web developer.  This question was posted in a ‘webmaster’ forum. I think they may have received better advise searching for advise from a marketing forum or affiliate forum.

Launching an affiliate program should be based on your marketing strategies. If your marketing team isn’t involved who will manage your program ?

hi webmasters
i got a question regarding affiliate program… i know how does it works… but i have no clue how to set it up..
tried look for open source script but no avail… any good recommendation that can share?
thanks

My answer:

If you want a successful affiliate program you need affiliates who know what they are doing – affiliates who will make sales.

These  affiliates will expect you to be using a trusted affiliate platform that provides the tools they need.
I suggest Share a Sale.  Its a very small investment and comes with access to thousands of qualified affiliates saving you a bit of time with recruitment. (You do still need someone to recruit and manage your affiliates.)

An affiliate programs like any marketing strategy takes some commitment to manage them.

Traditional advertisers take your moneyand run your ad – affiliates are your partners and to promote your services they need you to provide the tools they need and the reassurance that they will be paid for all their hard work.

If you can’t manage the investment of a reputable affiliate network (i.e. Share a sale, pepper jam – if you tell us your product I could point you to some networks that may be a better fit), then you should be sure to use a more reputable in house script. The ONLY two I recommend as an affiliate manager would be:
Idev or Post Affiliate .
I DEV offers the best features at a lower cost and is easy to install.