Five Reasons Why Your Affiliate Network Sucks

A great deal of the money generated in the affiliate marketing space, is done through many of the affiliate networks out there. With so much competition among the networks, it’s a surprise how some networks let themselves be seen. Over the next 5 days, I will be outlining a few of the top reasons why some affiliate networks just suck. If you are currently an affiliate network and reading this blog, make sure you stay tuned during the week to see where you might be slacking off, and how obvious it really is to some affiliates.

Here are Five Reasons Why Your Affiliate Network Sucks!

1.) Low Public Payout Rates
- Is your affiliate network paying higher or lower than your competition?

2.) Bad Affiliate Managers
- You affiliate managers are the blood and lifeline of your business. Make sure they are working for you!

3.) Same Offers as other Networks
- What good is an affiliate network if they all offer the same thing?

4.) Direct Deposit / Wire Transfer & Paypal
- Affiliates want their money fast, especially if they are spending a lot of money (ppc) to make money!

5.) Network Running Off DirectTrack
- Is it time you moved onto your own network platform?

Remember, this was just a quick outline of the where many affiliate networks are slacking and potentially losing thousands (if not millions) of dollars in commissions. Affiliates are the key to your success, and when we have so many different networks and options to turn too.. you will only get so many chances to make a first impression.



Where does your favorite affiliate network stand?

The next post in the series will focus on the “Low Public Payout Rates” from many well known affiliate networks. You know other networks are paying more… so are the networks paying a few bucks less, pocketing your profits???

35 pieces of wisdom given by ye faithful
  1. Zak Show said on July 21st, 2008 at 2:06 pm

    Actually I am working with CJ, NeverblueAds and PepperJam. I am satisfied with my affiliate networks that I work with. Recently, I applied for the Market Leverage publisher program and I didn’t get any answer yet.

    By the way I am running my first blog contest, It’s located here:
    http://www.zakshow.com/2008/07/20/my-first-blog-contest-cash-and-entrecard-credits/

    Reply
  2. matthew berman said on July 21st, 2008 at 3:09 pm

    the two things that matter most to me: 1. affiliate manager and 2. PAYPAL…

    i want to get paid twice per month, and not have to wait 2 weeks to receive and check and then another week or two for the check to clear.

    Reply
  3. Ken said on July 21st, 2008 at 3:17 pm

    Can someone provide some insight as to what DirectTrack is? Never heard of that before…

    Reply
  4. Andy Crofford said on July 21st, 2008 at 3:22 pm

    I agree with this. I mostly have great AMs but one or two are lacking. I really wish I could get a different AM.

    Reply
  5. James Seligman said on July 21st, 2008 at 4:47 pm

    I agree with #2, a bad affiliate manager will make me leave an affiliate network. I want one that communicates with me and keeps me up to date as much as possible.

    Communication on the whole is another thing that affiliate networks need to improve on.

    Looking forward to rest of the “series”

    Reply
  6. Dustin said on July 21st, 2008 at 5:25 pm

    Great post… I also agree with number 1. Payouts are important, that’s why I use OfferVault to compare offers.

    To the above poster (Matthew) … I’m confused, what affiliate network pays via PayPal and pays twice a month. Only one I know that pays twice a month is PepperJamNetwork.

    Anyone, only three I’m working with right now is NeverBlueAds, CJ, and MarketLeverage.

    Reply
  7. Baccarat Forums said on July 21st, 2008 at 6:23 pm

    One of the worst offenses for an aff network is professional support… A network needs to provide timely responses to emails.. if they don’t it just feels like they don’t care about you

    Reply
  8. Baccarat Forums said on July 21st, 2008 at 6:24 pm

    DirectTrack is an affiliate tracking software that powers almost all affiliate programs and affiliate networks.

    Reply
  9. Zac Johnson said on July 21st, 2008 at 6:33 pm

    Copeac, CPAEmpire, MarketLeverage and ClickBooth are just a few of the networks running off DirectTrack.

    Reply
  10. Steve said on July 21st, 2008 at 9:06 pm

    The biggest thing Id have to say is that if your affiliate manager doesnt really care about you why should you care about them. When you make money they make money so they should help and make themselves available to help. Thats what I feel.
    Thanks for the Post.

    Reply
  11. Polly said on July 22nd, 2008 at 7:08 am

    I agree with Steve. Affiliate manager should support us in making money because our success is their too.

    Reply
  12. Geiger said on July 22nd, 2008 at 9:50 am

    I totally agree with the payout numbers. Although I have never selected an offer based on a publicized EPC, that is some of the info that I always look for. It gives me the warm and fuzzy feelings.

    Reply
  13. Geiger said on July 22nd, 2008 at 9:52 am

    As a follow up, I HAVE NO idea why ALL affiliate networks DO NOT offer ACH transfers. They never cost more that 25 cents and it is MUCH better than using PayPal who takes a percentage.

    Reply
  14. The Net Fool said on July 22nd, 2008 at 12:15 pm

    Haha, I’ve really enjoyed when you do these kinds of posts over the years. I work with MarketLeverage, PepperJam and NeverBlueAds at the moment… definitely agree with some of your slam on payout numbers and the like… keep it up!

    Reply
  15. Nicholas Chase said on July 22nd, 2008 at 12:45 pm

    Zak,

    Your post is right on! Jonathan Volk of Volk Marketing, was flaming Market Leverage in his post yesterday. (I’m a ML member as of Friday last week, but no campaigns started yet). Jonathan discovered that ML had permitted internal, re-direction of inbound links, at around a $20,000.00 a day loss in revenue for the hacked Affiliate!

    Jonathan updated his post to say that ML was responding promptly to the issue, and he would update us soon. my ML Afilliate Manager stated that she had heard it was all abig misunderstanding. Thank you for your keen insight, and great posts! Someday I hope to be an authority, and give back to the community like you do. Respectfully, Nicholas Chase - http://www.donotreadthisblogunless.blogspot.com

    Reply
  16. Nicholas Chase said on July 22nd, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    Zak, I just blogged about your post and placed a link to your post in my blog here:

    http://donotreadthisblogunless.blogspot.com/2008/07/ad-networks-and-support-issues.html.

    Having some issues with Commission Junction and a ‘Performance Incentive’ preventing my obtaining the vendors link to begin promoting. The emails from CJ Support were not relevant to the issue.

    The vendor wants to give me the link, but CJ Status for the offer is ‘Declined Application’. Customer Support is a critical area for Networks to fix, I hope I can get the links while the high payout is still active!

    Respectfully, Nicholas Chase

    Reply
  17. Zak Show said on July 22nd, 2008 at 3:38 pm

    Yes, for sure.

    Reply
  18. Nicholas Chase said on July 22nd, 2008 at 5:34 pm

    Zac, All ok now at Commission Junction. The vendor discovered a glitch that he will have corrected by technicians at CJ. I now have a campaign running that has high payouts. Now I need to learn how to drive traffic to my site. Respectfully, Nicholas Chase.

    Reply
  19. Mayank Rocks said on July 23rd, 2008 at 1:01 pm

    I like paypal payments too.

    Reply
  20. Nicole Price said on July 24th, 2008 at 5:18 am

    I was going to ask that question too, Thanks for the clarification.

    Reply
  21. Jay said on July 24th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    Wow, I have to check out his post. I haven’t been there for a few days but I actually like ML…

    Jay

    Reply
  22. indocontest said on July 28th, 2008 at 10:22 pm

    I am working with CJ, MarketLeverage, RevenueLoop and PepperJam. I am satisfied with my affiliate networks that I work with. Especially MarketLeverage, I receive my first payment from them and my AM is a great guy, always reply whatever i ask about.
    I’ve read Jonathan Volk post and still follow the latest news from there. but thats was horrible story about Affiliate network but i think ML has responding well to this case.

    Reply
  23. Eva White said on July 29th, 2008 at 4:01 am

    Nice and confused…that’s what I am over which affiliate to choose. Maybe its time to do some more market research.

    Reply
  24. Eva White said on July 29th, 2008 at 4:07 am

    Wish life could be as simple as writing a blog post and letting other people do everything else.

    Reply
  25. Vladinati said on July 30th, 2008 at 5:25 pm

    I think affiliates managers are very wack they dont explain things. they just through you to the wolves and inexperienced people result to spamming. but there are programs that got there stuff together.

    Reply
  26. indocontest said on August 4th, 2008 at 10:02 pm

    Now Market Leverage pay International Affiliate with wire transfer with minimum payment $100.

    Woooow…. Market Leverage Rocks!!

    Reply
  27. Debo Hobo said on August 5th, 2008 at 4:37 pm

    CJ is the worst, they really don’t convert for me at all. Linkshare has better affiliates and they really convert faster and more often.

    Reply
  28. Green Directory said on August 7th, 2008 at 8:39 pm

    Presenting exclusive offers is huge.

    Reply
  29. [...] post is covering part one of the “Five Reasons Your Affiliate Program Sucks” series, and is focusing on “Same Offers as other [...]

  30. [...] post is covering part one of the “Five Reasons Your Affiliate Program Sucks” series, and is focusing on “Low Public Payout [...]

  31. [...] post is covering part one of the “Five Reasons Your Affiliate Program Sucks” series, and is focusing on “Same Offers as other [...]

  32. [...] post is covering part one of the “Five Reasons Your Affiliate Program Sucks” series, and is focusing on “Networks Running Off [...]

  33. [...] post is covering part one of the “Five Reasons Your Affiliate Program Sucks” series, and is focusing on “Low Public Payout [...]

  34. [...] post is covering part one of the “Five Reasons Your Affiliate Program Sucks” series, and is focusing on “Networks Running Off [...]

  35. Help! My Affiliate Manager Sucks! : Incom US said on April 12th, 2009 at 5:08 am

    [...] continuing with the “Five Reasons Why Your Affiliate Network Sucks” series, today we will focus on “Affiliate Managers“. The best way to think of an affiliate [...]

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