Thank you for your praise regarding the cleverbridge Affiliate Center! Unfortunately, there is no current Affiliate Center Iphone application, but you can always turn on off the Flash based reports and bookmark the web page.

Regards,
KC

Vendor lists can be useful to a certain set of affiliates, but unnecessary to many other affiliates. When a list of vendors is provided to affiliates, affiliates may become confused or overwhelmed and chose a vendor that cannot provide the best results for the affiliates targeted. It is essential for an affiliate to know what product they want to promote and why. When this is the case, conversions are higher and the opportunity for success is greater.

Since cleverbridge has never promoted itself as an affiliate network, but always as an affiliate program, cleverbridge prides itself on the fact that our clients’ affiliates are exactly that, our clients’ affiliates and not the affiliates of cleverbridge. This is why cleverbridge does not provide a vendor list. This hands-on approach we take has helped to create some very successful vendor affiliate programs.

2.Why wouldn’t an affiliate program offer a sign-up process on their website?

A sign-up page on a company website is a sign that the ecommerce provider is trying to attract affiliates for their own affiliate network. Once the affiliate is accepted into the program, the affiliate information is often coded so the vendor can’t communicate directly with the affiliate, without using the ecommerce providers interface. This is done to prevent the vendor from taking the affiliate to another platform.

At cleverbridge, we do not promote our clients’ affiliate programs because their programs are managed by our clients directly. Therefore, there is no need to put up an affiliate signup page on our cleverbridge website. This has been pivotal for the success of the Uniblue Affiliate Program and its 200% growth.

3.Why do some affiliate programs offer data feeds and some do not?

A data feed is used to keep an up-to-date list of products, products prices, and product descriptions for multiple vendors. Data feeds tend to be used for online software stores and two-tiered affiliate programs. The problem/benefit with a data feed is the automation of the process. Using a data feed may cause software vendors to lose control of their products; with feeds it’s difficult to track what is being offered and on which sites it is being presented. However, in the same respect, data feeds can benefit affiliates because the automation allows for automatic updates of product information.

Since cleverbridge is not a Network but an affiliate program we do not take liberties with our clients’ products by offering feeds. Cleverbridge takes more of a “boutique” hands on approach compared to a more automated “Walmart” approach. Currently, cleverbridge powers an online software store without the use of a data feed, but with the consent of select vendors. This allows for more interaction with the products for the vendor and affiliate, unlike with a data feed. Examples of our cleverbridge-powered stores exist at store.majorgeeks.com and store.fileforum.com.

Regards,
KC

Hi Steve,

Thanks for taking the time to post.

In response to your first point, every affiliate program is different regarding how they choose to attract potential affiliates and how they choose to work with them. I know your affiliate business model is unique and very effective yet more custom than a typical affiliate. Let’s discuss this more in-depth, so I can help connect you with the appropriate software vendors.

As we discussed at ASW10, I would love to have unlimited resources :). As we work with more quality affiliates like yourself, we will definitely add additional resources to help.

Unfortunately, some of your questions can only be answered by the software vendors. We do not want you to hold back on promoting cleverbridge software vendors. We greatly value your business and look forward to growing with you in the future. You have my direct contact information, so please call me any time.

Regards,
KC

Hi Erik,

Thanks for the insightful question.

Hit-Per-Sale ratio is a calculation that affiliates will have to track, because the equation involves the number of total unique visitors to their site and the total number of sales they have generated as reported by the affiliate program.

Although the value of what is being measured is similar, there is actually a very distinct difference. EPC (Earning Per Click) is a term typically used when measuring PPC (Pay Per Click). Because there is a cost attributed to every click, EPC is used to calculate the ROI per click when there is a cost attributed to the click. EPC is a actual dollar amount, unlike the Hit-Per-Sale ratio which is a percentage.

A Hit-Per-Sale ratio is used in a slightly different manner, in that it is the average of the total number of unique visitors that come to an affiliate’s website that convert into a sale, between 0% to 100%. A lot of times the Hit-Per-Sale ratio is used to calculate advertising budgets for a particular website.

EPC is used to measure ROI, while Hit-Per-Sale ratio is used to measure conversion rate. I hope this helps to clarify.

Regards,
KC

Good post. Here’s what I’d like to see from Cleverbridge in the affiliate program:

1) As mentioned above, a list of who your merchants are so we can sign up to as many as possible. Not only that but I’d like to see the contact details for the person in charge of the affiliate program too so we can get in touch with the right person. Some of the merchants have the details on their own websites but not all. This is vital, I rely on good relationships for my business to work.

2) More staff to help us affiliates. KC knows this has been a bug of mine for a year or more but really guys, with a bit more help you’d pay for that extra staff member or two in a flash. My biggest gripe is the time it takes CB to answer emails, if I even get an answer at all half the time. The result, I don’t bother to promote CB merchants half as hard as others because the support is just not there.

Hi Decun,

Thanks for your comment.

You bring up an interesting point regarding product pricing and the potential effects it has on affiliates. When the vendor does not offer the affiliate a discounted pricing promotion it causes the affiliate to lose sales and potentially leave a program. Communication between affiliates and vendors is essential to mutual success. This is something that we will discuss further in a future post. Please email am@cleverbridge.com regarding your specific issue to discuss how to find a solution.

Every affiliate program is different regarding how they chose to attract potential affiliates. Please contact am@cleverbridge.com to find out more about the vendors who work with cleverbridge.

cheers,

craig.