How to de-motivate an affiliate

Do you remember the first time you sold a product on a website via an affiliate program? That amazing feeling when the email pops in to say "You've made a sale!"?

It's fantastic, isn't it? What happened next? I'd wager you went straight to the affiliate page to check your commission was showing and to see when you were going to get the money.

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And this is where so many affiliate programs go wrong!

I can't tell you the number of times I did this in the early days, only to find there was a 60 day wait for the money, or I hadn't yet reached the threshold for payout. The euphoria passes, to be replaced by frustration.

A Contrast

Compare this with what happened when we set up an affiliate program with a local car hire company. We started with them towards the end of a month, and we only earned around ?20 commission in the first calendar month. Within two days of the close of business, their sales rep called into our office with an envelope with the cash in it. She does it every month - she comes to see us, thanks us for our support and hands over an ever larger envelope filled with crisp bank notes.

Motivation

Think about that in terms of motivation. Within a week of signing a deal with them, we had our money. When I get an enquiry for a car today, I know that if I can persuade them to take it, I'll have the money in my hand eleven days from now. It's powerful and effective. The result is that we all work hard here, refining our sales page, reminding clients that we offer car hire, tweaking the forms, and writing posts that mention car hire. It's effort, with pretty much instant reward.

A Message for Anyone running Affiliate Programs

Please think about this if you ever choose to work with affiliates. You can't turn up at my office with an envelope of cash, but you can make sure I get paid as quickly as possible, and that your payout limit isn't set in such a way that I need to make two or three sales to actually get my money.

The money is the incentive - get it to me fast and make it easy - surprise me!

Another story

In the early days I once sold a product package on behalf of a company. My commission was $47.50, and their payout threshold was set at $50. To add insult to injury, the money would only be paid 60 days after the close of month in which the sale took place - so if I sold something on the 2nd May, I'd get my money in August! I should have worked a little harder to sell another package, but I was pissed off with them, and didn't really put the effort in. A couple of months later I found one of their competitors was offering both a better product and a better deal for me.

On the face of it the first business did OK - they still have my $47.50. But here's the thing - I've generated over $1400 in sales for the second company since I switched to them.

Some other you might like:

1/ How to get the best from being an Amazon Affiliate

2/ How do you sell an affiliate product?

3/ Setting up a DIY affiliate scheme

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