Public Affiliate Networks vs. Private Affiliate Networks
Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?
Organizations can no longer rely on public affiliate networks alone. While these affiliate networks drive meaningful sales, many have become inefficient. Companies that rely exclusively on a public affiliate network are often left wondering which strategies may be working best, how to manage attribution and more importantly, what is working for mobile, a multi-billion dollar opportunity? The way to find answers to these questions is to supplement existing public affiliate network relationships with a private affiliate network.
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As of June 24th, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Connecticut are the states that do not allow amazon affiliates. It’s not the fault of the affiliates – they didn't make the stupid tax law that tries to gather more sales tax revenue from online sales, but now you, as an affiliate are being punished by your state.
I came across this workaround, but have not made use of it, nor investigated it.
What TO DO
I found Viglink. To put it in simple terms, Viglink is a very large affiliate aggregator. They’re not registered in one of the banned states, so they qualify for Amazon affiliate. Also, due to their volume, they get the top 8.5% commission rate on all Amazon items. What they do is allow you and I to monetize our sites with their affiliate account, as kind of an ‘affiliate’s affiliate’. So you’re not actually an Amazon affiliate, but you’re kinda a contractor for Viglink.
You install a snippet of code on your site and from that point on, any links you post out from your site (that can be affiliated) will automatically convert to an affiliated link. Have a WordPress site? It couldn’t be any easier. Just install the plugin and add your Viglink key. You can also set it to automatically add affiliated links to your pages. For example, the application saw that I typed ‘Amazon’ on this page, but I didn’t create the link, Viglink did. This makes affiliating your pages much simpler- and automatic.
Viglink Dashboard
A quick snapshot of the Viglink Dashboard
The bonus, Viglink has thousands of merchants, not only Amazon! You don’t have to apply to dozens and dozens of affiliate programs, only to be rejected, then weed through the specific pages and products you want to link to. Simply go to the page you want to link to, copy the URL, paste it into your site, then Viglink will automatically convert that link to an affiliate link. Viglink takes 25% of whatever the affiliate program pays. The good news for someone in an Amazon ‘banned state’ is even after their 25%, due to the fact they get the 8.5% tier, you actually get 6.4%, which is still more than most Amazon affiliates make at the bottom tiers. So what are you waiting for? It’s a very simple workaround, and trust me, it will make your life easier.
Update (June 18, 2013)
On the morning of the 18th, we all got the following email from Viglink:
Hello,
We are reaching out to inform you that Amazon has requested we enforce their ineligible publisher policies on our network. Amazon’s Operating Agreement explicitly forbids publishers in North Carolina, Illinois, Colorado, Rhode Island, and Arkansas from participating in their affiliate program; as such, we’ve had to cease Amazon affiliation for your account.
We have recently announced a new product that may help you continue earning revenue from your Amazon links. You may have seen our announcement last week to launch what we call the Link Optimizer. This technology will be an optional feature that recognizes product links and can rewrite the link on the page to the same product sold by a different merchant. The ultimate goal of this product is to create a competitive market where your links always point to the merchant that will pay you the highest commission; at the moment, it primarily redirects Amazon links, making it the best solution possible to their policy and an opportunity to continue earning from your Amazon links.
If you’re interested in giving this a shot, you can join the Beta waitlist here. Please let us know if you have any questions, and we’ll let you know if anything changes as far as Amazon affiliation. Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
VigLink Customer Success
So it appears the solution we've been using the last year is currently not going to work anymore. So I’m actually doing some research and contacting Viglink as well as competitors of Viglink, and other affiliate marketers to collaborate on getting a new solution. Please follow me on Twitter because as soon as I’ve had time to research this issue further and offer a 2.0 version of this solution, I will post a blog and tweet that post. Hang in there guys it’s not over yet.
I read that in order to be an Amazon Affiliate in many states that one will have to form a LLC company. supposed to be coming into affect this year. Just a heads up and might be worthy of some research.
Sincerely, Virginia
It is true and to my understanding already in effect. Not sure about the LLC part, but do know that Texas is not one of the "Banned" states.
I think it's entirely niche dependent and product dependent. The network is just a tool. Can't say I agree.
@Trialynn, thanks for that clarification. I wasn't sure either. I just signed up with Commission Junction and was about to sign up with Clickbank too. Any suggestions of private and/or public you like or have had a good experience with? Also found on CJ that there weren't very many dog affiliated sites that made sense for me.
Amazon has lot's for dogs, linkshare, through CJ, has Petco and Walmart and a few other pet friendly things. So far, for the money, I like MaxBounty. No dog stuff, but good offers for PPV and CPA. Mobooka is getting better, but I dream of Neverblue!
These are totally different. Clickbank is for virtual products like ebooks, videos etc that can be downloaded. Commission Junction and others are for actual products that are shipped to you such as clothing, tech products, jewelry, etc. There are lots of different companies out there. I currently use Clickbank for three virtual products, and I use Commission Junction, Linkshare, and LinkConnector for actual products. I tried signing up for Amazon, but my site was not ready so it was declined. I am about ready to try them again.
Some companies actually have their own Affilliate programs that do not go through a network, such as Overstock.com, Zagg.com, etc.
There's also link share they might have something for your niche, also you can search by typing in "dog + affiliate program
I would think an organization would lose more money than they'd make if they only used public affiliates. A blend of the two would insure they were covering the full spectrum of opportunity to sell their product. So I guess I'd have to agree with the statement.
Private networks tend to deal with people who make good money for them and they provide a contact person for you. Public is harder to get one on one attention.
Well, I really don't know if I agree or not. I think I need to ask for clarification between a public affiliate network and a private one. As bloggers who advertise for affiliates, would we be considered public or private?
Pat
The affiliate providers are either public (anybody can sell their product with a simple signup, like Clickbank) or private (one has to fill out an application to represent their product, like Peerfly or Commission Junction).
We are not private or public, but we represent public or private networks!
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I signed up for the Viglink. I added the app to my site, and once you go to settings to have it pull the API, you are set if you are using Wordpress.
I found you need to go back to Viglink and there is a support link that will take you to an FAQ. One of the questions is how to change your Paypal address. You are paid your commissions via Paypal. I had to change mine, as my regular email address is not used for my business account.
There is also a setting you can change to !) allow all affiliate links to be converted and 2) allow a link to be changed to a higher paying option. If you use Amazon, this can really be helpful, as some pay more than others for the same exact product.
I love being paid by Paypal, as there is no waiting, no amount to set for the payment threshhold, etc.
If any company has an affiliate option, all you have to do is imbed the link into your content. (Much like you would in Street Articles.) No more signing up, making sure your links work, etc.
There is a also an option you can set to NOT have a link changed (I will have links back to my other sites from one of my sites).
That was great info bloveds, thanks for your contribution.