Comments on: Take a cut in pay, stop selling so much or we will drop you!

By: carrie

carrie — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:28:34 +0000

“Thank you, in advance, for your cooperation and understanding,” so they think that you'll just accept a lower commission rate? Bogus!

By: Mike Allen

Mike Allen — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:59:35 +0000

This is about as senseless as it would be to say the following: “The affiliate channel is performing better than we anticipated. Since we don't want to earn more than [insert value here] per month, we will have to cut back our marketing efforts. We know affiliate marketing works and so we are reducing our efforts there since we can track exactly how much we have to cut to avoid exceeding our earnings limit.”

By: Matt Enders

Matt Enders — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:14:00 +0000

As I see it, whoever runs this affiliate program did not set it up correctly from the beginning. Step 1 in any affiliate program launch should always be, “figure out what commission rate you can pay and still be within overall margins”. This means a merchant has to consider, at a minimum, Their average margin, the commission they are paying to affiliates, the % the network is going to take, and the amount they are paying someone to manage the program (in house or outsourced, both cost a company money), and any discounts given to the customer. If the program is setup correctly at the beginning, then every sale which comes through the affiliate program SHOULD be profitable, even if only a small margin. It sounds to me that the company did not put in the time to figure out how their payout would affect their overall business.

In my mind, you should be ecstatic to cut a $250,000 check to an affiliate in any given month. Why? Because you as the merchant should have made money as well on each of those sales. I know it can be hard to figure out every variable in advance, but as an affiliate manager/merchant, that is one of your main jobs in this industry.

By: jMoore!

jMoore! — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:28:42 +0000

Merchants can be idiots…

Connie at I am Flamingo describes the worst way a merchant can look at budget cuts. She posted an excerpt from a merchant communication informing her that because their budget was almost gone for February, she needed to take a cut in commissions or se…

By: Daniel M. Clark

Daniel M. Clark — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:10:36 +0000

Although I understand why, I wish you didn't have to XXXX out the merchant's name… it's a shameful practice and they deserve to be outed in a very public way. Some people are just utterly clueless.

By: SnowProfessor

SnowProfessor — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:21:50 +0000

Seems counter intuitive to how affiliate marketing should work…it's performance driven. As long as you are turning good ROI, you should be able to do whatever you want. Profit from affiliate sales should be used to fund future sales.

Also, on a commission structure, the merchant always wins–unless they have set up their commission structure to be unprofitable.

By: brianlittleton

brianlittleton — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:49:37 +0000

My mind is spinning on that one. Sorry that you're going through it.

By: Judi Moore

Judi Moore — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:49:34 +0000

I hate when merchants act like small town retailers. I posted about your post and tried to trackback, but I don't think it worked. Anyway – You Go Girl!

By: Geno Prussakov

Geno Prussakov — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:30:40 +0000

Telling affiliates that if they don't “opt into the lower-commission offer” they'll get removed? Someone pinch me! I must be dreaming. . .

BTW, is it a CPL program?

By: chris

chris — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:18:59 +0000

wow, thats a new one…haven't heard of that strategy before in the schools of Affiliate Marketing. “Congratulations on your success. Now Stop it”.

i cant believe other companies are not jumping on the bandwagon to bring that award-winning plan to their programs. NOT!!!!!