As I announced at Affiliate Voice LLC, we are holding another Educational Conference Call. This webinar is part of a series called “Affiliate Education and Protection”. The title for this call is “How to Evaluate a Merchant Program”. During this call we will discuss the variables affiliates use in choosing which programs to join and promote. We’ll examine how to evaluate a merchant’s website and program offer. Also on the agenda is how to use the statistics and information provided in program description.

To help get the conversation going we have a panel that includes:

• Carolyn Tang, Director of Client Services, ShareASale Inc.
• Kevin Webster, President, 72 Kilowatts
• Melanie Seery, President, Affiliate Voice LLC & NY Affiliate Voice

This call is designed to be attended by affiliates, merchants and other members of the affiliate industry with any degree of experience. This webinar offers affiliates the opportunity to discuss and share their thoughts and ideas. By sharing their thoughts and opinions, not only can we help newcomers and each other, we can begin to talk about standards. Affiliates can help shape future offers. Merchants are also welcome to participate with their thoughts and questions. Having the opportunity to listen to affiliates perspective can be priceless in helping to maximize your program.

We encourage everyone to participate and add their thoughts but it is not mandatory to speak. If you know anyone new to affiliate marketing please feel free to share information about this call.

To facilitate communication and maximize the benefits attendance may be limited. You must register in advance. Though open to all in the industry preference will be given to Affiliate Voice members.

As always Affiliate Voice LLC members may submit questions in advance by using the contact information provided in their welcome email.

Title: Affiliate Education Call: Evaluating Merchant Affiliate Program

Date: Thursday, October 1, 2009
Time: 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM EDT
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/644907419

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

One of the nice things about January is that sales are usually still pretty strong.  Good sales might be due to merchants having clearance sales, the spending of holiday bonuses or people simply buying what they didn’t get. What ever the reason, I find January is a little less stressful, not as much pressure to sell yet sales come easier. I always take advantage of this quiet yet busy time to really evaluate my merchants. Even though it is an ongoing practice during the year, I always do a stricter examination at least twice a year.

This January I am being even more critical.  I am setting the bar a little higher and enforcing additional standards. Why? It is because I deserve better.

It is no secret that I and thousands  of NY Affiliates lost a significant number of merchants around June 1 when the NY Affiliate tax took effect. Many merchants decided to terminate NY Affiliates. In some cases, a merchant termination had little effect on me from a financial standpoint. In other cases I lost a significant amount of income. Since the number of merchants I had to replace was large, I was not as particular as I should have been. As I scrambled to find new merchants I found myself taking any merchant just to fill the holes. I lowered my standards, and that’s not something I will ever do again.

Why? I deserve better.

In fact, I have raised the bar higher than ever.  I have decided that I will not accept poor conversion. I send quality traffic and if it does not convert there is a problem with the relationship between my visitor and the merchant. In my opinion, there are three main reasons the relationship fails.

The first reason might be that my visitor and the merchant are simply not a good fit. It is just like even though everything is the same, I prefer to shop at the small deli on Main Street while my husband prefers to shop at the deli on Elm , different strokes for different folks. Just because a merchant converts for another affiliate, it doesn’t mean it will convert for me and vice versa. Not much I can do about. If my links are good and tracking properly, if a merchant doesn’t convert it is time to move on. Just like a failed relationship, there comes a point when even though it is no one’s fault, you say goodbye because you believe “I deserve better”.

The second reason a merchant might not convert is that there is something wrong. Maybe it is broken links, major leaks, a problem tracking, no stock, poor customer service or something else. If there is a problem and it has not been fixed it is time to move on. I deserve better.

The third reason is far more serious; something is interfering with the relationship. This interference can occur in different ways. If a merchant is affiliated with parasites there is great chance I will not get credit for sales. If a network or merchant does not provide a level playing field, my sales will suffer.  If there are too many distractions and leaks on the merchant site interfering with the customer relationship, my sales will suffer. When any of this interference exists, it is time to move on. It is time to move on because, I deserve better.

I deserve to get paid for my efforts. If I drives sales I should get paid, not someone else even if paying another party is done under the pretense of doing a good deed. Whether it is a glitch or intentional diversion  I deserve better.

My advice? Set your own standards, do not rely on the standards I or anyone else apply. As you evaluate each of your relationships ask yourself this – Do you deserve better?

This post is another installment in my series on ‘Finding and Evaluating Merchants to Promote’. If you are not a NY Affiliate, you can of course, skip this step. With the likelihood of other states enacting similar tax legislation, it might be a good idea for all affiliates to familiarize themselves with this information so they can be prepared. For NY Affiliates a crucial first step is to determine if the merchant is NY Affiliate Friendly.

Once you have identified that a merchant carries the desired products, there are several steps to identify if the merchant is NY Affiliate Friendly. A NY Affiliate Friendly merchant is one who accepts NY affiliates. Ideally, these have also taken the necessary steps to ensure NY Affiliates will continue to be safe.

Some merchants welcome NY Affiliates and others do not. Some merchants pick and choose which NY affiliates they will allow in. There is no one way to quickly determine if a merchant accepts NY Affiliates. One of the first things affiliate should do is read through the merchant’s terms. Of course, every affiliate should always read through the merchant terms anyway but many affiliates skip this step.

Reading the terms may or may not help you determine if they are affiliate friendly. Some merchants proudly indicate their acceptance of NY Affiliates in their affiliate terms and others will state that they are not allowed. Some merchants realize that proclaiming they do not accept NY Affiliates does not help their reputation and will omit this information from their terms.

Many merchants will assume that you know they accept NY Affiliates and therefore do not mention it in their terms. If it is not mentioned in the terms keep the merchant on your possible list and move on to their website. If you have already evaluated the merchant site and it meets your criteria go ahead and apply. In the meantime, you can also visit their site to determine if they are NY Affiliate Friendly.

As you visit and evaluate the merchant site there are a few things to look for if you want to determine if they are NY Affiliate Friendly. Reasons for accepting NY Affiliates are most often:

• merchant collects NY sales tax
• instituted 2 step solution
• tax exempt products
• lead program
• sales are well under threshold (but merchant is monitoring sales)
• B to B (business to business)
• other

You can see it can be complicated process. Many NY Affiliates opt to just apply to the merchant and wait to see if approved or denied. Others prefer to do the research before applying. Either method will work, do what you are comfortable doing. I prefer to have full knowledge because I want to minimize the risk that somewhere down the line a merchant will decide to terminate our relationship due to geography.

I am keeping a list of NY Affiliate Friendly merchants. Currently, these are merchants who have reached out to NY Affiliates and asked to be listed or their names were given to me from other NY Affiliates. Please note, the list is by no means a complete list, is not a list of merchants I promote and are not necessarily merchants I endorse.

In one of my next posts I will write about “Evaluating the Merchant Site”, much more exciting than taxes.