OSC Affiliate Network

[♥toyicebear]

Osc have a strong user base both regarding merchants and publishers so why not set up our own affiliate network?

 

Why not go for a joined solution.....

 

Merchants:

 

- Effective performance based marketing form with a low startup treshold.

- The possibilety to reach a larger base of publiser for you affiliate programs.

 

Publishers:

 

- A wide range of affiliate programs to choose from with a single payout

- single admin for all tracking all your affiliate earnings.

- Guaranteed payouts for the ads you place on your site.

 

 

Some initial thoughts.....

 

1. Every merchant have to have a minimum balance in his/hers account , for arguments sake lets say 50US, when an account drops under this amount the accunt gets suspended and will only be activated again when the balance are over 50US again.

2. A publisher can choose individual programs and/or choose program category groups.

 

 

If enough people likes this idea, then we should set up a work group and get cracking............

 

 

If this is something which sounds like a good idea, post your thoughts and comments in this topic..... :D

[matbennett]

Osc have a strong user base both regarding merchants and publishers so why not set up our own affiliate network?

 

This thought occurred to me a couple of years back when I was integrating 3rd party affiliate tracking with osCommerce.

 

From a technical point of view I think it would be quite straight forward, but I think that most of the hurdles are more practical and/or political than that. Afterall, running an affiliate network involves a good deal of book keeping and account management - which someone would want a wage to do.

 

I think an osC affiliate network would be interesting, but I just cannot see how the practicalities would work. I could though see a commercial operation (or existing affiliate network) doing well by gearing their operation towards osC merchants.

 

. Every merchant have to have a minimum balance in his/hers account , for arguments sake lets say 50US, when an account drops under this amount the accunt gets suspended and will only be activated again when the balance are over 50US again.

 

I suppose this could work, but I could see it being really annoying for affiliates. I assume that you mean when an account goes below $50 the tracking links will cease to redirect to the merchant.

 

For one I think that the cut-off would need to be at least 10 or 20 time the $50 cutoff suggested (single item commissions of $150 + are not uncommon on our site). Even with a much larger buffer it would be really annoying for affiliates if links suddenly ceased to function without notice.

 

For example: An affiliate builds a targeted, content rich site utilising feeds from one merchant, incorporating their own reviews etc. They are running adwords to draw people to their affiliate site, but unbeknowst to them none of their product links are functioning because the merchant was busy over-night and used up their pre-pay amount. This would means that the affiliate is not only losing commissions, but losing money on the PPC element and probably would not be an affiliate for long.

 

Not meaning to slate the idea Icebear - as I said, I had the thought myself so must find the idea appealling. Would I like to be part of such a network if it was running well? Yes. Would I like to be the poor sod who has to set it up or run it? No Way!

[♥toyicebear]

Well...it was just a quick thought which appeared one cold morning before my usuall cup of hot coffe.... :rolleyes:

 

 

And i concure, it might poste to many administrative problems to be a viable solution....

 

On top of my head, if it were to work management free...it would rather have to be like this.....

 

An automatic banner/ad system.

 

As a merchant you can input text ads and banner ads i various formats, you assign these to country/language and category/topic ad groups.

 

As a publisher you choose ad format, your country/language and category/topic group which you want shown on yoour website.

 

This allows for easier management and ofcourse since you do not choose individual merchants but groups...they risk of getting an empty ad space due to that a merchant has droped down under the account limit will be reduced.

 

Such a system could be set up almost totally automatic, using lets say paypal to pay out comissions at a set date every month.

 

 

Again just a thought..........Give feedback if you have any input.... B)

[matbennett]

It's saturday, so I'm feeling a lot more positive today (the sun is shining... the birds are singing... I know - I can see it all through the office window!).

 

I still like this idea. The groups is an interesting angle - especially if you can then choose to block merchants within those groups (for instance those that don't seem to be performing well).

 

I do like the idea of marketing becomming a collabrative effort in the similar way that development is - it could even provide an opportunity for those of us who's expertise is not in coding to give something back. In fact, this has given me another idea that I may just have to PM you about once I have thought it through.

[♥toyicebear]

WHappy to hear that things are looking brightly today and i hope you enjoy the fair weather. Feel free to pm me anytime....

[spayce_girl]

I like this idea. I'm still developing my osc store but the oscaffiliate program seems pretty good but I would like having an existing network that may be interested in marketing my products.