One of the things I learned from working at and with several large, national, multi channel retailers, was the concept of same store sales.  Now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a complex metric that I came up with, it’s only something I have found useful when managing affiliate programs.  Whether retail programs, lead gen programs, business-to-business programs or others, it comes in quite handy.

Same-store performance is a concept used by retailers and investors to evaluate a retail company’s performance.  It compares sales of stores that have been open for at least a year in that organization.  From investopedia:

This statistic allows investors to determine what portion of new sales has come from sales growth and what portion from the opening of new stores. This analysis is important because, although new stores are good, a saturation point–where future sales growth is determined by same store sales growth - eventually occurs.

So why should you care?  As an affiliate manager it is important for you to know where your sales are coming from, how your current partners are performing and what percentage of your sales growth comes from new partnerships.  And like the description above, at some point, your program’s sales growth will be coming from your current affiliates as your program becomes saturated with all the appropriate affiliates.

You need to be able to measure if your program is growing by new partners, or existing partners.  Your plans, promotions, offers and strategy will be dependent on this measurement and will change as you move from new partner growth to current partner performance growth.

A very typical phone call we receive, and probably at least one each week, is one from a new merchant looking for immediate sales through affiliate marketing.  We love to get calls from new prospects and enjoy meeting new people and learning of new business models.  It’s one of the reasons I love this industry.  There is always something new going on.  If it wasn’t like that, I’d probably would have taken that job at Jeld Wen out of college and not the “Search Engine Guru” position I ended up with .

Many of these callers have the same basic profile:

• they have a brand new site
• they just started selling their products
• they need sales

Does that sound like you?  We all need more sales, and more often than not, an affiliate program is a great way to increase your bottom line.  But is it right for everyone?

The answer is pretty simply, no.  It hurts a little to say that, as an outsourced affiliate management agency, we make our living launching and managing affiliate programs.  But, we’ve been doing this a long time and have launch and managed huge programs for large brands, as well affiliate campaigns for mom and pop stores and everything in the middle.  So we’ve seen that it is not always the best thing for you to do.

When we have launched affiliate programs for companies that are brand new, with no track record, we have found a few things that stand out and helped them become successful.  I’d like to share a few of them with you:

• Affiliate marketing was not their ONLY method of marketing.
• Their expectations were realistic, it takes time to build a strong program.  (for more info on expectations of a new program, see our blog post titled When should You Expect a Positive ROI from Your Affiliate Program)
• They had a long “runway” - meaning they had funds to run the business for quite a while, giving their affiliate program and other programs time to produce results.
• Their product was not only good or clever, but really filled a need that consumers had.
• They had active management - well us really
• Clear and concise rules.
• Solid standard creative.
• They were not only willing to test new things, they had a modest budget for paid placements.
• They could do coupons, discounts and promotions, not only site wide but also by category and individual product.
• Great educational content for affiliates.

Those last two have been big ones.  Having a great and clever product, and one that you could offer a discount on, opened these merchants/advertisers up to many new affiliate relationships.  Offering them solid, comprehensive and unique educational content allowed affiliates to really inform the consumer about this new product and new advertiser.  Without that, you are really just relying on a banner to entice the click.

Now, the ones that had failed?  They showed some common characteristics as well.  You can basically take that list above and write down the opposite of each one.  I’m sure many of you have worked with programs both big and large, what did you find that made one successful and the other not?

Multi-channel retail affiliate programs are unique, complex and require different tactics, strengths and processes than other programs to be successful. They are a different animal altogether from lead gen, business to business and online only programs. You have to worry about things like new-to-file acquisition, channel cannibalization and margin contribution allocation. Here is a quick guide to some of the important things you should be doing, looking at, monitoring, or working towards when managing a multi-channel affiliate program.

We’ve prepared a pdf of 4 things you can be doing to optimize your retail affiliate program.  This could also be good for affiliates to understand fully what multi-channel retailers are looking for from their affiliates.

Optimizing Multi-Channel Affiliate Programs

New Merchants Are Posting At NewsForAffiliates.com.

We have had many new affiliate programs sign up and start posting news about their company and their programs this month.  Companies like OlindaRidge.com, BackCountryStore.com, Retail Concepts, Crazy for Bargains, Jesus Branded and more.

We will be making some changes to the site and would love to get your feedback on how we could improve the site.

JEBCommerce is excited and proud to announce that starting today, we are now managing the Doba Affiliate Program!  “Doba simplifies and streamlines product sourcing for the emerging market of millions of web-based entrepreneurs delving into the fray of starting and/or growing a retail business.”  They are the premier drop shipping and product sourcing company on the web.

JEBCommerce has a long history with Doba.  We launched their first affiliate program back in 2004/2005 and are excited to be working with Brandon Delgroso and the rest of the Doba team to grow their program.

Let me tell you a little more about Doba directly from them:  “Doba is what people in the retail industry refer to as a product sourcing marketplace or drop-ship aggregator. Our members are online retail merchants and entrepreneurs who buy products at wholesale prices and sell them at retail prices without having to deal with the hassle and expense of storing products, managing inventory, packing and shipping products, and handling returns. Doba members can find wholesale priced products on our website, market and sell those products to their customers, collect payments, and then place an order on our site to have those products shipped directly to their customers. Doba’s single interface puts retailers in touch with hundreds of wholesale suppliers featuring a combined product line of over 1,200,000 quality products.”

Doba currently has two programs:

• Commission Junction
• In-house program

Both programs have two commission options:  $10 per free trial lead or $30 per sale and offer 45 return days.  The in-house program is able to offer many more creative and distribution tools with much more flexibility.  If you’d like to get involved, just let me know!

Welcome Doba to the JEBCommerce family of managed programs!

With the launch of any new affiliate program you get inundated with affiliate applications in the first week.  It is both one of the most exciting times for an affiliate manager as well as a frustrating time.  It’s exciting to watch outstanding affiliates that you know join the program but it is frustrating when you wake up to 200 applications on a Monday morning.

Along with the known affiliates applying to your program, there are hundreds and thousands of applications that come through that are either suspect, fraudulent or simply incomplete.  If you are an affiliate manager reading this, you’ll probably be nodding your head and maybe even have a chuckle.  If you are an affiliate that seems to receive more denials than approvals when you apply to programs, this article is just for you.  I’d like to highlight some of the things that managers see every day that you may be doing and need to avoid in order to get your applications approved.  So let’s get started…

• “Make A Million” Shopping Malls - These are sites that someone purchases from companies that supply them an entire mall that will make them millions of dollars.  These sites are relatively cheap to buy and provide the purchaser with a complete website, they only need to reach out and join affiliate programs.  While these sites look good, I have never seen one of these make any sales for any of the programs I have run and I have managed over 35 across industries.  Most program managers recognize these with very little effort and deny these applications.  Like all things, successful endeavors take, hard work and initiative.  These sites sound too good to be true because they are.  My advice to anyone who has purchased this already, find a niche you know a lot about and start over.  I’ll write more about this in a future post.
• Blogs with no content - This is a sure way to get your application rejected.  I am sure that your new blog and your new theme hold within them your hopes and dreams, but having not one single post on your site does nothing to show affiliate managers who you are and what your site is about.  My recommendation - get ten posts on your blog, fill that first page.  After you have that done, I would make sure any customization or unique plugins that you plan to use are on the site.  Make it look unique.  We see hundreds of applications with the Wordpress default theme and no content.  Many times fraudulent affiliates use this method to get approved without raising flags.  Post your content, design it then apply to the affiliate programs.
• Different language sites - I see 20 or so applications a week for sites that are in Japaneze or other languages.  I am sure that they are great sites, but with no description in english I am not able to effectively review the site.  Most affiliate programs are no longer accept everyone and anyone, if it is too hard to evaluate your application it just gets denied.  In your affiliate account, be sure to outline your site and how you plan to promote merchants as thoroughly as possible.
• Geocities and other free sites - Sites that are hosted at Geocities, Tripod, Members.AOL.com or Freewebs will undoubtedly be denied in many programs.  Why?  Well, first off, I can’t remember when one of these sites generated any sales for any program and I can’t recall any of my colleagues saying that either.  Secondly, if an affiliate isn’t serious enough to register a domain name aren’t going to be serious enough to become a successful partner.  Some may not like me saying that, but it’s true.
• Modeling and Real Estate Sites - This seems like a pretty odd combination, but I have seen more applications from these two categories than any other.  If you are planning to do something outside of these areas but use those sites in your application, I would make sure the affiliate manager knows about it.
• No URLs - When your application shows no urls in your account, affiliate managers have no way at all to eveluate your application.  Merchants are getting much more sensitive to who they partner with, and not knowing who you are will surely lead to a rejection in quality programs.
• Google Adwords - Applications that list Adwords as the url for the applicant and only that url can be tough to approve for programs that do not allow paid search.  So if you do something else, make sure you list that too.
• Under Construction  and Parked pages - If your site is still under construction, that is a tough sell.  Merchants don’t want to partner with someone when they don’t know what their site will look like.  Maybe I have said that already :).  I have seen affiliates post a simple htlm page on their new domain that addressed the affiliate managers directly and gave a brief description of what they were doing.  I highly recommend this and I believe I have approved everyone of those applications.  The more we know, the more likely we’ll approve you.
• Banner Farms - These are almost 100% rejected.  What is a banner farm?  These are sites that have, pretty much, only affiliate banners.  They have no other content and no real benefit to the user other than a list of ads for merchants.  These are rarely approved and rarely generate sales for merchants’ programs.  They offer very little in terms of value add to the merchant as well as the consumer.  My recommendation is to spend more time developing your idea.  What consumer target are you trying to reach?  What value are you going to add to their shopping journey?  What are you going to offer that no one else does?  Answer those question then find a designer that can work with you.
• Get Rich Quick Sites - The same way you feel as a consumer when you see these sites are they same way affiliate managers do as well.  I haven’t seen these perform well.
• International Applications - This probably only goes for programs that is 99% domestic traffic.  Applications from third world countries, some Asian countries, Nigeria and some eastern block countries are suspect.  Why?  Past behavior and experience.  Many of the fraudulent affiliates have, in the past, originated from these countries.  If you are a legitimate affiliate, and don’t get me wrong, there are many from those countries, you may experience more rejections because of your location.  But  don’t fret too much.  You may be getting refused by a lot of affiliate programs but there are ways to get noticed.  You need to show affiliate managers that you aren’t interested in scamming, fraudulent behavior or abusing the program.  You have to establish trust as much as you can from your application.  Here are a few things you can do:  1.  Use your company name, if you don’t have one create one. 2.  Email the manager of the program you just applied to and let them know who you are and what your plans are.  3.  Use an email account associated with your website.  Don’t use yahoo.com, gmail, hotmail or other free services.  Having a email@yourwebsite.com email address is typical of legitimate affiliates and will help you get approved.

By no means is that list 100% complete, but it gives you a good idea of things to avoid in your applications and a few reasons why your applications would be rejected. Let me share some things I recommend that you do do in order to get approved (I included some of them above):

1. Complete Account Information - don’t leave any fields blank in CJ, LS, ShareASale, Google and others.  Fill out all the information.  The more complete the application, the more likely you’ll get approved.  Just the effort involved in filling out all the fields shows you are serious.
2. Contact Info - A little contact info goes a long way.  Include your email address and your phone number when possible.  Affiliate programs view affiliates as partners, if you can’t contact your partner, they aren’t really a partner are they?
3. Email the manager - You’d be surprised, but one of the number one things managers wish they got more of was contact from their affiliates. If you are really interested in working with someone, reach out to them, share your ideas and your plans and include your contact info.
4. Good Site Design - this goes a long long way.  With themes and Wordpress anyone can put together a pretty decent site.  Here are some themes I would look into:  One Theme, Woo Themes, Citrus Themes, Revolution.  Getting a good designer involved will lead to sales, but those themes and Wordpress will get you started with little cost.  If you need design let us know, we can help.
5. If your site is under construction, put up a simple html page that says what you are planning to do.  Affiliate managers love this and it will help you get approved and get insight and advice on your new idea.

Hope that helps!  What do you think?  Affiliate managers, did I miss anything.  Do you think I’m off on any of these items?  I’d love to hear what you have to say.