Greener Pastures

I hear from time to time about another new affiliate network starting up from an affiliate who wants to make more money in the industry. I get asked, how much does it cost to start an affiliate network?

I tell them that it’s not about how much is COSTS, it’s about CASH FLOW.

So I ask them, how much cash flow do you have to cover your first month or two of payments? Take in consideration that your net payment terms are not going to coincide with advertisers and you need to manage and carry the balance from your affiliate’s earnings. Do you have the cash flow for that? What happens when you don’t get paid at all?

Another thing I think about is why this affiliate would even want to start an affiliate network? Do they feel the need to progress in this direction to maintain stability in this industry? Is this just something they think is an easy task to do? What’s the motivation here?

How is it that the already established networks can leverage their traffic for better payouts, payment terms, and campaign management? And then in turn, become mega affiliates themselves?

Is the Grass really greener on the other side?

My answer to these questions is no. If you’re an established affiliate looking to expand in the industry, don’t. Expand in yourself. Why would you want to compete with other well established networks, some of whom you’ve been working with for years?

You remember how hard it was to initially get into this game? It’s like starting over again. Only now you’re a ‘network’ and you have ‘affiliates’. Keep in mind some of the points I said in my previous post.

Being an established affiliate is great! Why would anyone want to venture outside of that? If you want to build, build relationships and partners. Leave the negotiating payouts/offers/payments/terms up to the guys who already have those relationships with the advertisers.

For those who will continue to strive to build quality networks after becoming great affiliates. Good luck, and may the best network win!