[Andy Rodriguez]

Hello team,

Well it's been a month now that i've ventured on this road and i'm happy to say it's going fantastic. Along with success though comes some challenges, and in the past, i've learned to trust the judgment of ABW'rs and use your opinions as part of the decision making process. I feel we are a team, and as a team, i value your viewpoints ...

Having said that:

1) Looking at it from an affiliate's view...
2) Taking into consideration the current VC aquisition of CJ, and that maybe we will have a hybrid BF/CJ application in the future...
3) Looking at the many in-house applications...

I'm not asking about reporting issues, trust issues, tracking issues, individual AM issues, downtime issues etc....assuming all that is equal and a good, trustworthy AM is running the programs, tracking and reporting all sales ....

Which "tracking software", interface would you prefer to use as an affiliate?

AndyRodriguez.com
Affiliate Program Management
and Consulting Services
P: (305) 412-3512
C: (305) 785-4524
E: doc@andyrodriguez.com
W: www.andyrodriguez.com (http://www.andyrodriguez.com)
AIM: AffiliateDoctor

[Andy Rodriguez]

If i missed any you may add... http://abw.infopop.cc/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif

AndyRodriguez.com
Affiliate Program Management
and Consulting Services
P: (305) 412-3512
C: (305) 785-4524
E: doc@andyrodriguez.com
W: www.andyrodriguez.com (http://www.andyrodriguez.com)
AIM: AffiliateDoctor

[EmDub]

I voted for CJ simply because they post sales as they happen (unless the merchant batches) and they pay monthly. It's almost impossible to go wrong with that arrangement.

My second vote would go to LinkShare. I actually prefer their reports, but they don't provide real-time tracking. On-time payment is up to the merchant.

Not a big fan of SAS, but I can deal with it. Would like it better if it were easier to differentiate sales between different sites.

Michael

[Andy Rodriguez]

Real time tracking...

ahh, yes, as an affiliate i would like it as well, however, when you deal with fraud, invalid cc's, etc. real time tracking becomes "work" for a merchant and that is the kind of "work" that some affiliates don't understand. Reversals are no fun, when you get hit with fraudelent orders, and youcan spot them a mile away, the average affiliate doesn't understand.....

I personally prefer nightly batch reporting of shipped sales...fraud is greatly elliminated and once your sales pipe is filled, you get sales daily....

Any other thoughts?

AndyRodriguez.com
Affiliate Program Management
and Consulting Services
P: (305) 412-3512
C: (305) 785-4524
E: doc@andyrodriguez.com
W: www.andyrodriguez.com (http://www.andyrodriguez.com)
AIM: AffiliateDoctor

[Zeus]

I voted for CJ, too. Not only it's near real time but it's fast to get the link you need and also the way you want it (target, hide code...).
LinkShare is also a good choice, at least you know the product you're selling and it's important if you're a serious marketer. You still have to be careful if you use a WYSIWYG editor their tracking could be messed up very easily.
It doesn't mean I like the way CJ is running their (our) business.

It's not the big that eat the small... it's the fast that eat the slow. Jennings & Haughton

[Andy Rodriguez]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> at least you know the product you're selling and it's important if you're a serious marketer.~ Zeus <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Very important feature if you ask me, as an AM, i need to know the products YOU are selling too so i can fine tune the program to your individual needs...not all partners market the same products for the same merchant...

AndyRodriguez.com
Affiliate Program Management
and Consulting Services
P: (305) 412-3512
C: (305) 785-4524
E: doc@andyrodriguez.com
W: www.andyrodriguez.com (http://www.andyrodriguez.com)
AIM: AffiliateDoctor

[Zeus]

With nightly batch reporting of shipped sales, you really need to trust the merchant or the AM http://abw.infopop.cc/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif.
What I don't like is to don't know if the sales were posted or not. To test a merchant I've to invest in a few click thru. With real time and a few hundred clicks I know roughly if I'm going to keep the line, with batched transactions it's a few thousand and the cost is not the same.
It's my point of view as an affiliate but I understand the merchant side. At Linkshare sales are reported after shipping, so we're getting less reversals.

It's not the big that eat the small... it's the fast that eat the slow. Jennings & Haughton

[Andy Rodriguez]

46 views, only 6 votes?

I should have added another choice..

6) Don't give a damm http://abestweb.com/smilies/bonk.gif

C'mon..let's get a good sampling here..

AndyRodriguez.com
Affiliate Program Management
and Consulting Services
P: (305) 412-3512
C: (305) 785-4524
E: doc@andyrodriguez.com
W: www.andyrodriguez.com (http://www.andyrodriguez.com)
AIM: AffiliateDoctor

[Linda]

A combination of Linkshare and CJ would be nice. I like the ease of the way CJ is set up for retrieving links. I like the real-time reporting. But knowing what products I've sold in the report from Linkshare is extremely important to me as well as the report that tells me what orders I've missed because of return days.

Best senario is a little of that one, a little of the other one and a lot of the next one. Is that clear as mud?? http://www.abestweb.com/smilies/browsmiley.gif

[nextspire]

Maybe shareasale?

[Kcedit]

I voted CJ, because I can only vote one. I like Linkshare and Performics interface too. Both got much better reporting than CJ. I specially like to see which product I am selling. Only these two offer that option. Befree's new reporing is good. But it still takes too much clicks to create a link.

[SeventiesMartin]

Linkshares product success report is the most useful report out there in my opinion, so Linkshare wins my vote.

To be able to see how many sales of what products have been made for any time period is the only way to know what is working and what isn't, what to push harder, what to drop and try something else etc.

I don't see CJ's real time tracking as a bonus. It doesn't help marketing, it just lets you know sooner rather than later that you aren't getting the sales you should.

If real time tracking complicates the tracking process, then I would rather have a batch system. I would rather have a simpler (and therefore less error prone) tracking system.

[Gordon]

I voted CJ for the consolidated payment, real time tracking and ease of use

I got my parasiteware (http://www.parasiteware.com/) t-shirt http://abw.infopop.cc/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif http://abestweb.com/banana.gif
<font color=red size="1">All parasites (http://www.parasiteware.com/) are scumbags and should be treated as such....</font><font color=blue size="1">STAMP EM OUT!!!</font>
Take care
YouTrek.com (http://youtrek.com)

[Vrindavan]

interface only:

1. easy to get multiple links and locate the link i want

2. easy to apply, re-apply, drop a merchant, view merchant status report

3. easy to contact merchant via email

4. can get detailed activity report of a specific merchant easily, epc stat and ranking, product report

5. do not consider the affiliate contact address as equal to website demographics ( serious marketing mistake )

6. fast loading site

7. real time tracking is not better, because real time reporting is not your true earning report ( timely reporting is good enough )

8. easy to locate merchant's
landing url,
commission structure, return day
shipping to countries / servicing countries,
website, product/service description copy, preview banner codes, epc data



.... more

http://8n.nu

[This message was edited by Vrindavan on October 18, 2003 at 10:41 PM.]

[This message was edited by Vrindavan on October 18, 2003 at 10:43 PM.]

[Andy]

I voted for CJ as well. They have the easiest interface to navigate, they provide almost real time reporting, and they pay you with one check, on time, every month.

Creating links is fairly easy as well, although at times very slow. I would like to see more complete information on product links, for instance which ones are being clicked on, and what is actually selling. The "Product Catalog 1" setup they now have is totally worthless, provides NOTHING helpful, other than we know that products are selling or they aren't, we just don't have a clue as to which products are doing what.

The normal disclaimers apply, but you said to disregard parasites, dishonest merchants, etc., so I did. http://abw.infopop.cc/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Andy

_______________
<font color="red">Call the Exterminators! We've Got PARASITES! (http://www.parasiteware.com)</font>

[Gatekeeper]

Andy,

If you are considering running your own program in-house, http://abestweb.com/smilies/banghead.gif we did a lot of research on this and are currently building a small group of 8 programs with this particular tracking software. This company used to be called Affliate Trends and are now under the banner of AffiliatesManager. They have been super fast with support and easy to deal with. Excellent reporting and supports a wide variety of link types right out of the box - including text, banners, html, pops and java.

The price is also VERY Competitive between $1200 and $1900 depending on what you want. It runs on your own servers - so you have complete control. It is easily customized and branded and is written in PHP. Even without knowing PHP you can upload the templates into Dreamweaver and make HTML edits. IMO it's definitely worth looking at AffiliatesManager (http://www.affiliatesmanager.co.uk)

Dale Wentzel
Director, Online Marketing Motormint.com
365 Day Cookie | Parasite Free | Commission on ALL Sales
http://www.motormint.com/linkshare/ls_logo.gif

[Buddha]

I don't vote in this, because I figure you need something to track to judge these systems. http://abw.infopop.cc/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif ( soon soon ) But, I did just go through BeFree, CJ, LinkShare, SAS, Yahoo! to take a look.

Now realise I don't have many links up. None with LinkShare. So I was kind of surprise to find LinkShare had all kinds of hits (6) and impressions(93!) in 6 merchants. ( soon soon and from linkshare if this keeps up! ) Don't know how this reflects on their tracking but someone must be having trouble with their linking.

Can't wait till I can VOTE! http://abw.infopop.cc/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[chetf]

I don't care about consolidated payment, if i can't make $20 from your program you can keep it. And to be honest, if it tanks, a bunch of little programs that cut me checks under $600 a year is okay with me.

While i love CJ's live stats, I understand the issue of reversals and the other issue of a pain to track products and the inability to track what sells. the last being the real stinker in an otherwise fine interface.

While I root for shareasale day and night, I still will not put one of their banners on any of my sites, i think i have text links, but no banners etc. That downtime has to end first.

I actually would have said linkshare for their reporting until smmesser's post tonight. I have no appreciation for people who spit on me, and I don't even think steve has a clue to how unclassy that post was.

Kowabunga is fine for the programs I am on that utitilze their system, though some of the merchants must have the basic ugly version compared to TD.

While befree is annoying to try and signup for merchants, past that, i have no issue.

So kowabunga, befree or some other in-house program. Just let me know what drives sales.

An added bonus would be any software that puts a bunch of gold stars next to my name and calls me super!

Chet

[Nature Boy]

I guess I'll throw in my 2 cents.

I like Linkshare's reporting and easy of creating links, but I don't like the limitations of these links. I would prefer to have a way to link to any page or product in the merchant's arsenal.

Just as Linkshare, a few CJ and BeFree mechants have links set up this way, but when you factor in the ease of getting links, type of reports (BeFree has some great reports, when the merchant lets us use them,) and lack of downtime, I'd give the nod to LS.

-----------------------------
Scott