[lal19541]

SteakBrands.com is proud to announce our affilate program offering steak branding irons. This is the unique gift that is perfect for Christmas, Father's Day, summer grilling, & groomsmen gifts.

We offer 233 different items from 42 NCAA team logos, personalized monogrammed branding irons, along with a large selection of novelty & single letter branding irons. Click Here to view samples. (http://www.steakbrands.com)

What makes us unique:
* We offer 15% commission
* Two-Tier commissions (5%)
* $5 bounty for referring new affiliates
* 120 days cookie duration
* Unique market with large target audience
* We offer opportunities to earn bonuses
* Only online merchant of steak branding irons offering an affiliate program
* Automatic replenishment of funds

We offer an FTP for all images & an Excel document for pricing & descriptions.

We are exclusively using the ShareASale network. Click Here (http://www.shareasale.com/shareasale.cfm?merchantID=11358) to get started today.

Please contact us with any questions or comments at sales@steakbrands.com

Best regards,
David L.
www.steakbrands.com

[Woz]

Hi David, Welcome to ABW.

Interesting program, but I notice a few leaks on your groomsman page - http://www.steakbrands.com/bulk-orders-wedding-party-gifts.htm Are these left over or intentional?

[lal19541]

Actually it's still a valid discount. We just hadn't updated the page with our latest layout. I've updated at this point. Thank you for the head's up!

[Eathan]

Very interesting. I like the product line and think it has some potential, but the toll-free number at the top is a big turn off for me. Can you (and more importantly, do you) track phone orders to affiliates for proper commission?

You're obviously not alone in taking phone orders (seems like every SAS merchant I look at lately has a toll-free plastered across every page), but I tend to avoid programs that display phone numbers without some obvious means of crediting phone sales.

Thanks for any clarification.

[lal19541]

Mr. Mertz

While I can certainly appreciate your concern, our phone support is an area that sets us apart from our competition. We have actually taken measures, hiring staff, to ensure that our calls are answered.

I am looking to make this a successful & honest affiliate program I would certainly appreciate any feedback that you can leave in regards to a way of tracking phone calls that are generated from affiliate referrals.

I personally run affiliate sites of my own so I would be more than willing to implement some sort of tracking system if you have some suggestions that I could look into.

The phone number has been in place for well over a year so it's not a tool that was recently added to avoid paying affiliate commissions. Trust me, I realize the importance of affiliate referrals so I am open to any suggestions that you may have.

I look forward to your response.

Best regards,
David L.
www.steakbrands.com

[Eathan]

Hello David,

Please understand, I was not making any accusations about your program, but rather pointing out why I chose not to join even though it interested me. As a professional affiliate and affiliate marketing consultant I have to take lost commissions related to phone orders seriously.

I know that every merchant is different and phone order volume varies, but consider one extreme example. One of the programs I promote does track phone orders and does a good job of it. According to their numbers, I sent them 3283 orders last year, 899 of which were over the phone.

27%!!!

Admittedly I actively promote phone orders and the program is in an industry that already sees much higher phone percentages than most, but considering my average sale was over $300.00 even 1% untracked would've hurt my business.

Also, my post followed other recent phone order frustration, so don't take it personally that this soapbox magically appeared under me.

I appreciate your interest in suggestions of possible ways to track phone orders. One popular method is to capture the affiliate ID and display it to the visitor as an "offer code" next to the toll-free number and train the operators to ask if the caller has an offer code at the time they call in. Since you also offer "coupon codes", you may be better off calling it "Ref #" or something similar, but you get the idea. With the way Shareasale is set up, I think you'd still have to enter those sales manually for the affiliate to be credited, but it's a start.

Another option is to not display the number to affiliate referred traffic, or at least tuck it away on a customer support page. Heck, even a toll number displayed to affiliate traffic rather than toll-free is less likely to turn off potential affiliates.

Lastly, depending on what percentage of sales you hope for from your affiliate channel, you might consider not taking phone orders at all, and instead use phone support to walk the customer through the online ordering process.

However you choose to proceed, I wish you the best of luck. It seems like an interesting program and you seem sincere in your desire to make it a good one.

Cheers!

[lal19541]

Ethan

That's fantastic advise that I had never considered. I have already made one of the changes that you mentioned. I removed the toll free number from the header on every page of my site. The only place that it appears is on the 'contact us' page.

The fact is that majority, at least 95%, of our sales come via the web. Generally our calls are customer support (ie. tracking). You could even test it out, if you were to call us we would actually push for you to complete the sale online that way there is less chance for typos in address, etc.

I've had a decent response to this affiliate announcement but I wasn't sure what potential affiliates were looking for even though I've done a decent amount of research.

By the way, thank you for the suggestion, hopefully this will ease the minds of some potential affiliates.

If you, or any one else, sees an area of concern please let me know because, as you can tell, I'm want to make this program 'affiliate friendly'.

Best regards,
David L.
www.steakbrands.com

[Eathan]

David, that's great! I'll definitely check out your program again in the morning.

Glad to hear you're off on the right foot. Feel free to hit me up if you have any program management type questions. I've been on that side of the fence for a few years as well, and am pretty much avoiding taking on clients, so it's a good time for free advice. ;)

Cheers!

[Brian - ShareASale]

David,

In the ShareASale Help topics you'll also find a script that you can use to track phone orders should they come in...

[Eathan]

Brian, I think that's great and something you could promote to merchants a little harder. The other night I was looking through half a dozen merchants and every one had phone ordering without any visible means of tracking. One I called said SAS wouldn't support phone tracking.

David, glad to see the toll free taken down this morning. I've also enjoyed emailing back and forth with you. I think you've got the beginnings of a great program here, and your responsiveness to affiliate concerns is going to pay off huge as you continue. Fantastic job! :thumbsup:

[lal19541]

Eathan

Thanks for all of your help. I know that this product will convert well for affiliates so I'm willing to take measures that will help out the affiliates.

By the way, later today, I'm going to announce a few incentives on my affiliate blog at www.steakbrandingirons.com.

I'll announce them here as well so that everyone is notified.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
15% Paid - CLICK HERE (http://www.shareasale.com/shareasale.cfm?merchantID=11358) to get started today!
www.steakbrands.com

[lal19541]

Hello

I'm finding the phone issue to be a major concern so here is what I have done.

I contacted Brian with SAS regarding tracking phone orders. He informed me of a chunk of code that will include a 'Promo Code' next to the phone number.

I have inserted the code and tested it. It works perfectly. It inserts the affiliate ID next to the phone number.

Since I own the business and I answer majority of the calls I will ensure that if a customer INSISTS that the order is placed over the phone that I ask if there is a 'Promo Code' next to the number. Please keep in mind that I will still encourage my callers to complete the order via the website but I'm sure that there will occasionaly be an instance where someone insists that I do it.

There are only two pages that you will find our phone number so you can test this yourself. The pages are:

http://www.steakbrands.com/contact-us.htm
http://www.steakbrands.com/aboutus.asp

As you can see, I'm dedicated to ensuring the integrity of this affiliate program so please let me know if you have any concerns.

Lastly, I'm still looking for additional feedback or concerns.

Best regards,
David L.
15% Commissions - Get Started Today! (http://www.shareasale.com/shareasale.cfm?merchantID=11358)
www.SteakBrands.com (http://steakbrands.com)

[Alan Hamilton]

Good job David. Your handling of the phone order concern is a plus for you. I wish you the best with your branding iron program. I guess my alma mater would be a difficult brand to offer - so guess I'll never get my Midstate Southern University of Eastern Plains IL steak branding iron!! :cry: :cry:

Best of luck to you David

[lal19541]

Good job David. Your handling of the phone order concern is a plus for you. I wish you the best with your branding iron program. I guess my alma mater would be a difficult brand to offer - so guess I'll never get my Midstate Southern University of Eastern Plains IL steak branding iron!! :cry: :cry:

Best of luck to you David

AmeritrustRx

I'll have to see what I can do about getting Midstate in our product line. :) If you don't mind I'm going to work on USC, Notre Dame, and Ohio State first.

It really wasn't that big of a deal removing the phone number since not a lot of sales are generated by phone.

Best regards,
David L.
15% Paid - Click Here To Get Started Today! (http://www.shareasale.com/shareasale.cfm?merchantID=11358)
www.SteakBrands.com

[Alan Hamilton]

AmeritrustRx I'll have to see what I can do about getting Midstate in our product line. :) If you don't mind I'm going to work on USC, Notre Dame, and Ohio State first.

So you are saying that Notre Dame, Ohio State, USC represent a larger market than MSUEPI??? :confused:

[lal19541]

So you are saying that Notre Dame, Ohio State, USC represent a larger market than MSUEPI??? :confused:
AmeritrustRx

Try saying MSUEPI five times really fast. Actually we have added some new schools that aren't on the site yet.

Duke
Boston College
Wake Forest

Best regards,
David L.
15% Paid - Click Here To Get Started Today! (http://www.shareasale.com/shareasale.cfm?merchantID=11358)
www.SteakBrands.com

[lal19541]

Hello

We're excited to announce a tiered commision structure. We have setup the following structure at this point.

Default: 15% per sale
10 - 29 sales: 20%
31+ sales: 25%

For now we're going to run on a monthly basis (ie. 1st of the month through the last day of that month).

With the holidays coming the 25% should be easily attainable.

If you should have any questions please email me at dl {at} steakbrands.com.

Best regards,
David L.
15% Paid - Click Here To Get Started Today! (http://www.shareasale.com/shareasale.cfm?merchantID=11358)

[lal19541]

Hello

We have uploaded out product database to SAS. We have included nice descriptions, images, & other details.

If you happen to request FTP access to the data feed via SAS I'll have it approved quickly.

If you should have any questions please let me know.

Best regards,
David L.
15% Paid - Click Here To Get Started Today! (http://www.shareasale.com/shareasale.cfm?merchantID=11358)

[johnnyWebAffiliate]

Hi, in your datafeed you only have a single category and a single subcategory. On your site you have many. Is this by design? Do we have access to the entire catalog? Thanks.

[lal19541]

Hi, in your datafeed you only have a single category and a single subcategory. On your site you have many. Is this by design? Do we have access to the entire catalog? Thanks.
When I created the datafeed via the instructions per SAS I was given certain category codes.

I'm going to look into this right now and see what I can change. I'll then re-submit the update and post here to let everyone know.

Thanks for the heads up.

Best regards,
David L.
www.SteakBrands.com

[johnnyWebAffiliate]

Do we get credit for the personalized orders too? How? Thanks.

[johnnyWebAffiliate]

In case you did not know what I meant on the datafeeds, I was referring to this on all the items:

Gifts/Specialty|Misc. Holiday

Thanks again. (not trying to rush you. just trying to help.)

[lal19541]

Do we get credit for the personalized orders too? How? Thanks.
We thought about this and what we've done is set it up so that when a customer ordes a custom brand we actually create the product in our shopping cart.

Then we direct them to that page to take care of the invoice. That way the cookie is still valid and you still get credit for the sale.

Keep in mind that our usual order for a custom brand is in the range of $125. Now, if they need to pay by check we've decided to request the 'Promo Code' that displays next to our phone number.

This is the code provided by SAS to track any phone orders.

If you should have any further questions please let me know.

Best regards,
David L.
www.SteakBrands.com

[Woz]

A big pat on the back for David who seems to be pulling out all stops to make this an affiliate friendly program.

Onya Dave!

[lal19541]

A big pat on the back for David who seems to be pulling out all stops to make this an affiliate friendly program.

Onya Dave!
Thanks Woz

I'm doing everything I can to make our program affiliate friendly so I'm certainly open to any suggestions from anyone.

I realize the importance of affiliates so I'm doing everything I can to get the word out about our affiliate program along with the great incentives & tiered service.

Best regards,
David L.
www.SteakBrands.com