Client Wants To Start An Affiliate Program For His E-Commerce Store

[guesswho]

So I do SEO/SEM work for a number of clients. One of my clients runs this e-commerce store selling wholesale branded over stock clothing Wholesale Clothing - Wholesale Name Brand Clothes - Wholesale Urban Clothing - Wholesale Designer Apparel

He wants to add an affiliate program - Ive looked around a little bit but affiliate marketing isnt really my strength so I thought Id ask for some advice:

1. Is it reasonable to assume a site like this can do well with some good affiliates?

2. Do you think a CPA model based on purchases will work?

3. Obviously he isnt very big, so any recommendations on networks to work with?

Any other pointers, heads up, advice etc would be great.

Thanks!

 

[bauss]

Business to business sales.

Kinda hard to successfully implant an affiliate program for B2B related sales.

 

[CCarter]

Dude, you fucked up putting your client's website on here. Seriously, any asshole can approach your client with a sweeter deal, and better knowledge and take your client right from underneath you. Man you have to be careful with shit like this.

Side note: Why is there Google Adsense on your client's money site? You're driving away potential business. It's hard enough to get visitors to the website, you're now driving them away for pennies. You should have contact information, to get better bulk rates, or special something so more people are willing to contact you.

Also, what he said, B2B affiliate does not work. You should just go straight B2C, create a new portal to sell directly to consumers online, at better prices, throw it through Google Base, and other e-commerce websites, make some cake, and the put an affiliate offer on that site, and call it a day. Easy 4-20K extra a moth in revenue. Don't forget to send me my 10%.

 

[guesswho]

Dude, you fucked up putting your client's website on here. Seriously, any asshole can approach your client with a sweeter deal, and better knowledge and take your client right from underneath you. Man you have to be careful with shit like this.

Side note: Why is there Google Adsense on your client's money site? You're driving away potential business. It's hard enough to get visitors to the website, you're now driving them away for pennies. You should have contact information, to get better bulk rates, or special something so more people are willing to contact you.

Also, what he said, B2B affiliate does not work. You should just go straight B2C, create a new portal to sell directly to consumers online, at better prices, throw it through Google Base, and other e-commerce websites, make some cake, and the put an affiliate offer on that site, and call it a day. Easy 4-20K extra a moth in revenue. Don't forget to send me my 10%.

Ya I shouldnt have put it up your right, anyways note for next time.

Second the adsense is just there for a few days, he's in the process of selling banner ads in those spots.

So basically B2B isnt a good idea than with affiliate marketing. Any reasons in particular why?

 

[zany zoroaster]

CCarter just gave you some very good advice. Nice work on the SEO though.

B2B isn't going to work because:
1. Mom and Pop shop owners who buy online are not going to pull sufficient margin to cover the high cost of merch on that site. Boutiques that can are not going to buy in such volume.
2. This leaves us with medium distributors, who supply a range of boutiques. These people don't buy online.
3. To sell to these people, you need to establish a personal relationship. They trust a local supplier, not a site that's plastered with Adwords. These distributors need to be sold in-person.
4. Selling in person takes time and effort. When you give a 7% commission to an affiliate, on a $3,000 order that's $210 - not nearly enough to cover all the phone calls, lunches and chats. Later, when the distributor re-orders, the affiliate gets nothing.
5. This kind of stuff is sold B2B by sales reps - one in each city. With a nice commission, and - I think - a smaller comission for recurring orders from clients that they signed.

In a B2B scenario, it makes more financial sense for an affiliate to go work for someone as a sales rep, than to independently promote the site for a total payout of $210...

 

[CCarter]

Why is he selling banner space on his site? This doesn't make any sense. It takes a lot of effort to get traffic to your money site, why send it away for pennies on the dollar?

Go to a major e-commerce website, notice that once a visitor is on the website, there is no longer a need to advertise to them, nor do you want to send traffic else where.

For a in-between site, like a blog, news portal, etc, it makes sense, since you are not directly selling a product. You never give the even slightest hint to a visitor to leave your money site. The end goal should be to buy, or close the browser. If you place a banner there it adds distractions, and give them another opportunity, buy, close browser, or leave the website. Once a visitor is on your website, 100% of the focus of the site should be to get to the main goal. Main goal being buying something online, secondary calling the company, 3rd contacting through a form/email. That's it. All of those goals end up making your client money, long term real money. Banner as are for portals that don't sell anything. And what's worst is if you put up Google Adsense on the site, you are simply sending your highly targeted traffic straight to the competition.