Plan to write my own Affiliate Marketing code. Stop me!
Hi everyone,
I'm planning on running an affiliate program for Pikaso. But due to various reasons (cost, end-user privacy, being in total control, etc.), I'm considering writing the code myself and do not use any third-party services.
Is this even a good idea? What are the challenges? What are the things that I should consider?
Thanks
We're an analytics tool for affiliates and ended up building our own, too.
Main reason: We wanted deep integration and proper tracking.
Most of these SaaS-oriented affiliate solutions have abysmal analytics, so your affiliates don't get enough data they need to optimize the conversion rate on the landing pages where they promote you.
Plus, they take a steep cut of the revenue.
A few things to make sure you include, if you create it yourself:
This only makes sense, though, if you have sophisticated affiliates promoting your product. If you just have "normal users" referring friends, they won't know how to use this kind of data. But if you have bloggers, affiliate marketers, influencers doing it -- the more analytics you give them, the better they can optimize their campaigns.
Happy to answer any questions -- I spent a couple years on the affiliate side of the equation myself.
Thank you for the great answer, Monica! That was really helpful.
LOL! You must be a developer. Problem with us (developers) is we want to build everything ourselves. I was in your shoe and I first started thinking about Affiliate for my SaaS. It started with a need for my existing SaaS, then I decided to build a stand alone SaaS app, then I wanted to have features from others products, etc... I endup buying a domain AffiliateHunt.com and now I am juggling 2 products. Lot of people fail because they are not focused. Consider the time and effort you would put in building this vs subscribing to a out-of-the-box Affiliate service and using the time to grow Pikaso or finding affiliates.
Here is a good advice from Neal Patel https://youtu.be/h3MS7T-CyEE?t=310 on focus.
Good Luck!
How much did you pay for AffiliateHunt.com? It seems to be first registered in 2013
Thanks for replying, but you failed to convince me to stop :)
What got me thinking about this was this post. If it can be done in such a simple way, I think it's worth it.
Can you tell me what points this article is overlooking? What are the problems that I might run into in the future?
Interesting article, give it a try. He has already done most of the work. It would a good post for your to write about your experience and improve it.
Few things to consider, how you will be paying commission, automated or manually?
Do you intent to send automated emails like welcome, payout sent, etc.
Improvise to adjust commission based on plan upgrade, downgrade, refunds, dispute and cancellation.
Thank you! Great points.
A first step might be to run a survey with your customers to what type of affiliate program would they use? and what they will want as reward? and how commission works (one time vs recurring)?
These can help you build your own specific for your product.
Thank you!
I wrote my own CRM. Spent 2 entire months writing the code. It worked great for about 4 months, but then we started craving basic features that all major CRMs have. We eventually abandoned it.
This was the most expensive thing I've ever done! A good CRM costs anywhere from $20-$500 a month. I could've easily purchased one of these options, but instead I wrote my own. That is two months of development I will never get back. I'm estimating that mistake costed me well over $20k in wasted time, and delayed features.
Great insight. Thank you.