I hate affiliate programs. Not the actual concept, or what happens when you make a sale. Oh no - I hate the actual programs. Many of them are setup in a rather sneaky way that do nothing but try to extract money from your traffic without giving up a dime. And then you have the problem of cookie stealing, and companies building up their brand without paying you a dime - argh!

I make more money from affiliate programs than advertising or sales. But - every single one of the affiliate programs we use (we use 5) all provide XML systems. We are able to complete a transaction without a user ever knowing that we are just a frontend. The most important part here is the provider is never able to exert their brand influence on the end user. Next time User X wants to buy a product, he (or she) will come back to our site and re-purchase. Huzzah!

Actual example: iBegin Toronto. Revenues from ads: $x. Revenue from hotel reservations: $x * 4.

And our partners treat us well. We get solid traffic. We don’t trick our users or annoy them. And we have generated millions in revenue (literally) for them. Its a relationship where both parties try hard to make the most of it.

Speaking of which - none of the companies I work with actually advertise an XML system. We contacted their affiliate manager, talked about the high quality traffic that flows through us, and reached a deal. Simple and easy

[this post catches me up for the weekend so I am again averaging exactly one post per day]