Tell me more ×
Answers OnStartups is a question and answer site for entrepreneurs looking to start or run a new business. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 4 down vote favorite
1

Anyone ever work with Commission Junction or Linkshare (or others) as an advertiser? I'm looking to set up an affiliate program for my marketplace app. We have the technical skill to implement an affiliate program ourselves, but I'm curious about peoples' experiences with some of the larger organizations.

Specifically, how easy are they to interface with? Is it smooth and easy (ie. REST APIs, RSS/Atom feeds, etc.) or clunky and crappy (FTP'ing files, proprietary formats).

Also, on the publisher side, which do you prefer to work with, and why?

Update: I heard back from CJ and they want $9k down. I'll cross them off my list...

share|improve this question

4 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

If you expect to be pretty big, you'll probably end up working with all of the above - regardless of how much easier to work with one is over the other. But all in all, I do recommend using them. However, once you grow to a certain size, you can expect to dedicate one employee entirely on affiliate management.

share|improve this answer
Well of course we expect to be pretty big ;) But for now we have no delusions of grandeur and just want to pick one that's easy to integrate with and offers a good value. – Micah Oct 24 '09 at 13:40
up vote 3 down vote

I worked with Specific Media previously and had good success with them. They seemed to be real honest in their recommendations, worked closely with me to tune my program as we learned more and more about the response and were generous when a couple of affiliates tried to 'play' my promotion and screw me. They were economical in getting started too, no big initial payment, at least when I worked with them.

Best success.

share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

You are going to pay an arm and a leg both in upfront costs and a percentage of your payouts to affiliates (20-30%).

If you have the capability to do this yourself, you should definitely do so.

I checked out your site - very nice! If you are interested in setting up a custom affiliate program, feel free to ping me -- we are in beta and looking for feedback!

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

We have used Shareasale and the Google Affiliate Network. Shareasale is fine (with pretty reasonable startup costs) and the GAN is OK. They could use a lot of work on it though.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.