Affiliate Payouts - What The?

Playing Devil's Advocate. I think that the price has to do with the affiliates sending the links. The Stamps.com one blows my mind though. There might be more scams at the lesser affiliate networks. NeverBlue has always volunteered to up the payout on numerous programs. I just haven't found one that I truly love there yet.

I don't know the exact explanation...but I have many in my mind.Like:
-maybe there are different staff designated to take care of cj or neverblue ads or...
-maybe some of the affiliates like stamps consider that a bigger affiliate program(cj.com) is more important than little or new affiliate programs (neverblueads) and as a result they pay less .
-maybe it is a consequence of the results.If stamps gets more sales with cj then they will pay more for getting new sales.Or maybe it's backwards: if they get more they pay less.

The only way is to mail them and ask straigt "Why do you pay like this?" Maybe I will ask them through cj mail.

@dish - "I think that the price has to do with the affiliates sending the links."

true for negotiating, but I'm talking about the default offer they advertise or give to the layman. You can get screwed if you aren't paying attention or new and not knowledgeable that the same offer can pay different at different places.

@nino - there might be many explanations from the network side but certainly the affiliate manager of the program that is running the ad on 5 different networks knows that some affiliates are getting lucky and some are getting screwed, simply by where they grab their link. crazy

To further mess with your head, the same offer pays differently for different affiliates at the same network! Based on many factors like your traffic sources, quality, amount, and of course your overall status with the network, some affiliates can make up to 40% more than others per action.

Also, the payout may occur at different places in the order process at different networks which can account for the large difference. CJ usually requires fully verified orders for payouts (which can be reversed), while other networks might just pay on the lead.

"affiliates can make up to 40% more than others per action"

oouch! I'm on the down side of that for sure.

What does it serve the networks to keep this stuff silent or do it behind the curtains? Isn't this just called an incentive plan? Or tiered structure? Why not make it public? Amazon shows exactly what they do. Make a bunch of sales, you make higher commissions, simple,honest,fair.

Certainly people can do what they want, but it seems that to add some fairness to the affiliates (the non super affiliates) they might want to curb this practice or standardize it.

Keeping it hush hush makes things shady/greasy/slimy in my opinion.

Those other "cpa networks" or "affiliate networks" are actually affiliates. And usually when you deliver more leads or sales, you get paid more per lead. They're just sharing more of it with you.

This is true...with volume, come benefits. Also, the different payouts can be used as a bargaining tool as with any sales environment. If you truly want the top payout without all the hassle, just establish an excellent relationship with your affiliate managers, and if they know the "game", they will hook you up out of the gate! Good Luck guys!

Not always true, Jonathan. Despite what you read on ABW, that is sometimes the case (more so in the past) and does explain some of the payout differences, but CPA networks are frequently getting direct deals with merchants and rely on smaller margins to get more market share.

It all has to do with how the cpa network has negotiated the deal with either the original merchant or broker where they are getting the offer. I've worked at cpa networks where we consistently took a very small % cut in order to get more traction and compete with Azoogle, etc. The merchant or broker would get upset b/c there's often a max payout they want out there in order to not cannibalize the market.

But there are all sorts of variables that the cpa networks have to compensate for like a guaranteed amt for the offer, a specific number of leads or sales they need to make, etc.

Saying that they are all just affiliates of CJ or Linkshare is beyond simplistic and not a reality anymore.

I think the best comparison for this kind of thing is the car dealership business.

that is odd.

I should have elaborated a little more maybe. You said not always true, but sometimes. And it is a true a lot of the CPA networks did start out as affiliates and then went and started their own CPA network. And we did actually talk about what you posted too at ABW. Of course we also talk about how a lot of them have pushed adware offers thru their networks, which isn't very affiliate friendly is it? And if you read over there, you would know this.

Most Affiliate programs have multiple brokers. In my experience usually the best deal can be found with the companies own affiliate program since they don't have to worry about broker fees. After that the larger brokers like CJ always have the next highest commission.

@Tom Depends. CJ/Linkshare/SAS/Performics, etc don't always have the best offers for the type of site or list you are running on. You can usually get a much better deal on lead type stuff as a publisher/affiliate with a cpa network compared to CJ (if they even have the offer).

As Mark says, shop around and don't rely on one network (big or small) if you're in the margins game yourself. If you're trying to build a long term relationship, that's another story and you may need to take a few percentage points on the chin in order to make that work.

That's radical. It seems that going through an Affiliate "site" like CB of CJ pays better that is you get the link directly from the site.

All this kind of information needs to be transparent. It won't see the light of day without the whistle blowers like this post.

I wish someone would develop some new models for monetization, instead of PPP, PPC, PPA, and any other "PP" thing.

The notion always promoted that that there is literally hundreds of ways to make money online is pure rubbish.

Just another area that is more than a little misrepresented.

thanks for the feeback all, yeah it's lame. i mentioned to sam on his blog I would feel real crappy as an affiliate manager knowing someone could get paid alot more if they got their affiliate links at a.com instead of b.com. However I don't think they care because i've never heard of anybody getting that email or advice from any manager.

Dude - I really dig how you are vlogging while you are out getting exercise or driving to the grocery store (or where ever you were going). This is good stuff!

Thanks for including Market Leverage in your video! We appreciate being recognized. As the General Manager of ML, I can tell you that we certainly don’t view affiliates as ‘stupid.’ In fact, quite the opposite is very true. Our roots in this business, which date back to the late 90’s, are actually steeped in affiliate marketing. We have been affiliates ourselves, in one form or another, since getting into this great business almost a decade ago. We love affiliates!

As far as you pointing out the differences in CPA bounties for the same offer across different networks, I understand that this can be a frustrating process. At first, it may seem as if networks are, in fact, just hoping that affiliates will ‘take the bait’ at the lowest rate possible. While I cannot speak for all networks, I can say with 100% certainty that this does not represent our approach at Market Leverage. In fact, we are very well known for offering the highest payouts available anywhere on campaigns the vast majority of the time.

However, based on several factors, such as: an advertiser’s strategic decision to offer one network a higher payout than another, one network’s strength in a given area of interest or type of offer (‘incentivized offers’ for example), a network’s decision to use a campaign as a ‘loss leader’, with the principal goal being the generation of more interest in other offers within that network, and many other reasons – none of which presume ignorance on the part of the publishers – but simply reflect the complexity of variables that go into this business.

I think that your seeking the highest bounty, as most affiliates do, is a great and smart way to begin understanding which networks offer the greatest value. In addition to price, I would also recommend that you also research and evaluate networks based on their customer service, accessibility, affiliate manager knowledge and experience and over-all reputation of the network within the industry.

I would be happy to assist you in doing so if you wish. Feel free to contact me directly at your convenience at 407 805-8884. Thank you again for getting our name in the mix!

@sal - indeed, there are many honest and good explanations from the network side of things, however from an affiliate point of view it does seem like a bit of a game at first impression. Thanks for the comment.

@mark - good to see you back ;)

@Mark45n5 - Stumbled your failed PPC video - hope you see a jump in subscribers *grins* Feel free to re-sub to bloglyne *grins*