Question

Topic: E-Marketing

What Are The Pro's And Con's

Posted by Anonymous on 12/27/2004 at 4:35 PM ET 30 Points
I would like to incorporate an affiliate program for our website. My thinking is that it doesn't cost us anything at all. My superiors see it as only another expense but my thinking is that if an affiliate gets us 1 new subscriber and we have to pay the affiliate part of the revenue that we would not have the additional revenue had it not been for the affiliate getting us a new subscriber.

No money would be lost for us.

What does everybody else think?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 12/27/2004 at 4:57 PM Member
    From a financial point of view, of course it only makes perfect sense that this kind of revenue is almost as good as free money. Someone else makes a sale for you, you pay that person only a percentage of that revenue, and you repeat until rich.

    However, for some businesses, this is not a good idea, although it has nothing to do with the finances.

    You have to ask yourself, do you really want all these people out there marketing your business and your name and your products and services without having any real control over what they are doing?

    What's to stop them from using your name and offer with a spam list that's blasted to 10 million people? And what's to stop a dozen other "affiliates" from doing the same thing?

    Although I know that affiliate programs can make a lot of sense in certain cases, you have to think it through very, very carefully.

    This is one reason why we will never use "resellers" or "partners" to sell our services. There is simply too much risk for us that our good name will be harmed.

    As always, YMMV.

    Paul
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