What’s the best way to put a very simple affiliate system in place?
I don’t need to be able to sign up multiple affiliate deals - it’s just one website which will link to several hundred of my products and I need to be able to track sales which originated with them.
Apart from a full affiliate extension, the only thing I can think of is to offer them a coupon which could be tracked on my side and then I manually work out commission to pay them.
Has anyone had to do this, and is there a simple and free affiliate system which could track this for me?
I think you may find that sourcing a free affiliate management program or extension will be near impossible. Have you considered joining some of the affiliate networks out there?
Granted a good deal of them have large joining fees but there are companies like ClixGalore that have a free sign up structure and you simply pay the override on all affiliate sales.
I would offer assistance for signing up to our network but we only operate within Australia at this time and only open our doors to Australian merchants.
Networks can be a benefit if you truly want to grow an affiliate campaign as a great deal of affiliates don’t want to go with privately run programs as they can be inconsistent with payments and tracking. Whereas a network has been built to ensure these functions work like a dream.
I’ve had a good experience with Commission Junction (CJ.com), you might want to try them.
In my experience, though, affiliate programs haven’t been huge for my past businesses. I always had better luck hiring independent salespeople and giving them a commission. That’s just me, though. Your business may differ.
I’d recommend you look at Commission Junction or Linkshare, Commission Junction seems to be the more effective in tracking sales and has received good reviews. Other possibilities include clickbank and shareasale.
Here’s an objective take on the issue.
http://experienceadvertising.com/commission-junction-vs-linkshare-which-is-the-better-affiliate-network/
A Free Good Affiliate extension is impossible to find.
However, with the coupon function you mention, you can purchase our extension at $69 for the basic edition and $50 more for the plugin Coupon.
http://www.magestore.com/affiliateplus/features.html
Our Affiliate extension has many great features, and it definitely will bring you a lot of Sales to make up the first investment
- Setting commission, discount & payout requirement
- Refer through banner: Image, Flash, Rotator, Page heel, Popup…
- Refer through link: affiliates can custom the link url
- Refer through email, social network, widget
- Affiliate by coupon
- Pay Per Sale
- Pay Per Lead
- Pay Per Click
- Pay Per Mille
- PayPal mass pay, Multiple Payment methods: bank transfer, wire, credit card…
- Create Multiple Programs
- Tier Commission
- Report Basic edition just $69. Add preferred plugins as you wish. Free Lifetime SupportCheck it out http://www.magestore.com/affiliateplus/features.html
