Affilate platforms for SAAS vendors

[Steve]

Hi all.

Anyone know some decent affiliate platforms for selling software, on a subscription basis.
Ideally with decent integration, so people can sign up on site rather than going to subdomain.affilateplatform, and a decent reputation with an active community so its easier to find affiliates.

I have an internal tool that i am thinking about building into a SAAS product.
I have written plenty of billing backends with Stripe and Paypal, but i am keen to open this up to affiliates if its got legs, and i doubt anyone would trust a self managed affiliate program (i certainly wouldn't).

I haven't really touched anything affiliate wise since Wickedfire times, so the only platform i could remember was clickbank, which (at least back in 2012) had a scammy reputation, so not ideal for a business tool.

 

[Ryuzaki]

i doubt anyone would trust a self managed affiliate program (i certainly wouldn't).

I use a ton of self-managed affiliate programs. I get paid out by all of them on time. I've never had an issue (as far as I know). Parentheses because they could be shaving, but that's not really conducive to them making even more money by having happy and skilled affiliates.

Yeah, Clickbank is garbage. You could get on Commission Junction, AWIN, Shareasale, etc. But most of them have a fee per sale plus a pretty hefty "get started" fee and often a monthly fee too. They eat into your profits big time. Those three are trusted though.

 

[Steve]

Ok, maybe times have changed!
As self managed system would be easy enough to build, but it's still going to take a fair amount of time, and crucially doesn't come with an existing community of affiliates.

I recognize those 3 networks now you mentioned them - I'll check them out. I guess the size of the buy in fee is going to be the main issue.
I can afford a long payout delay, but a huge cash deposit, not so much.

How are you tracking conversions on these self managed affiliates programs? Do they let you drop a pixel/ analytics id or something?

 

[CCarter]

A bit off-topic, but one way to make sure an affiliate program is not shaving is to ask them for real time monitoring. Literally only SAAS I’ve seen do this is SERPWoo so far (sorry had to).

Real time monitor allows affiliate to see when their users are browsing the site, converting into accounts, and becoming paid users. It’s like analytics - if SAAS employees those scenarios the biggest gripe of affiliate marketing would be removed - shaving.

 

[secretagentdad]

Never been happy with anything I tried. No sense in throwing shade at the vendors.

I want Carter’s tracking system lol. Call it Buso pro affiliate or something.

 

[CCarter]

I want Carter’s tracking system lol. Call it Buso pro affiliate or something.

What's funny is it's not a magical system. Since every affiliate program tracks this information, all they need to do is create an GUI interface to show this data (simply MYSQL queries to their database). BUT IF they are shaving obviously that would be a huge problem since you can see a user sign up or buy a product, but then if it "mysteriously" disappears questions will be asked. So yeah people looking to rip off their affiliates have almost no incentive to give affiliates real-time tracking.

But if people are looking to have loyal affiliates and willing to work with them to grow a brand - the incentive to show you aren't screwing them over is greater. I dunno seems smarter to make your business partners more money versus ripping them off as they try to send you traffic to generate YOU money.

That's why affiliate marketing is so ass-backwards. All it takes is a couple of operations that set a golden standard and the fraudsters will have to fold up shop - cause affiliates will now have other alternatives.

That's the thing that's great about ClickBank - their traction is pretty much real-time, since you can be a vendor or affiliate, if there was anything shady going on Vendors would be aware, and vice-a-versa.