[Zeus]

To give hope to new affiliates.

Just from one of my regular CJ merchants:
Sale Amount (USD) $4,247.50 Commission (USD) $509.70
I've no reason to believe it's a fraudulent order.
I expect that in December, not in October!

And it has nothing to do with my balance going up and down this morning.

[Haiko de Poel, Jr.]

Nice one Zeus, WTG!

[Trust]

Give more hope, tell them the merchant

[meadowmufn]

Very nice! Congratulations.

[meadowmufn]

Ooh yeah! What Trust said... I need LOTS of hope.

[Zeus]

We're so upset sometimes we forget to tell the good part of affiliate marketing.

[meadowmufn]

Very true, Zeus. Thanks for the inspiration. I'm glad tracking was at least working for THAT sale.

[Geno Prussakov]

Wow, Zeus! Nice one!

What was the sale for? A used car?

Geno

[Zeus]

Geno, one of the worse job you can get here is Used Car Saleman, it comes just before Affiliate Marketer (after the take over by the parasites of our "industry").
No, it's related to gifts (I know what you're thinking)
Halloween is not that far and I do rank well for many keywords.

[UncleScooter]

I had a sale about that size with Northerntool a while back. It was one of the higher end utility vehicles they sell.
Although the commission was a bit smaller, it gets your blood pumping to get a single sale in the $4000-$5000 range.
Mine stuck. I anxiously awaited it to be reversed but it never was.
Congrats Zeus. Nice sale. My fingers are crossed for you that it will stick!

[Zeus]

It's one of my oldest merchants with CJ. I worked closely with them the last 7 years. It's not everyday you can get orders of that size but I've sales everyday over $500.00.
I'm always wondering who's behind such orders. I'm sure you must be thinking also about the person buying an utility vehicle of this price on Internet. They must trust the merchant.

[UncleScooter]

My theory, based on my buying habits, is that people go find something at a store that they like. They don't buy it and go home in search of a better price or maybe a different color etc. on the web.
I do this often and end up buying things online that I would not dream of buying online except that I know exactly what I want and find a better price online.
Also keep in mind on a $5000 item, 6 1/2% sales tax is $325. If the item can be purchased at the same price with a $50 shipping charge and the transaction takes place across state lines, the consumer nets $275 and that is a substantial savings.

We as affiliates need to remember to sell the tax savings, but be careful you don't do this with someone like WalMart who has a door in every or most states.

[Zeus]

UncleScooter - We as affiliates need to remember to sell the tax savings

That's a great tip, very true for expensive items.

[Donuts]

Nice sale Zeus!!!!

[Kellie aka Ms. B]

Woohoo Zeus! Congrats. Drinks are on you right?

[Packy]

Nice Comish Zeus! Awesome

[Rexanne]

WTG - nice sale! Thanks for posting a positive Zeus!

A lot of people are hang doggin' this week so your timely post is heartening.

Should we all post a positive? I'm having a pretty good month, all across the board and CJ is tracking some of those sales. As soon as November hits, we'll all be rolling in holiday spending. THAT'S another positive. :-)

I also think there is a lot of negative speculation about CJ's intentions with their new PSA. If we look at the positive side of that, it's an attempt to clean up after the parasites and hopefully out them from the network. We honest affiliates shouldn't be too worried. I think CJ is covering their A$$ in case someone comes around and demands pay back for all the illegal crap going on within it's ranks. GOOD! I could be very wrong. Hope not.

[ticketguyz]

Originally Posted by Zeus

That's a great tip, very true for expensive items.

Not technically (or legally) true though... the purchaser almost always has the obligation to remit use tax to the state taxing authority. Does anyone do it? Well, not individuals, but companies do, and if they don't they get audited, and then they really get stung! States are hungry these days =)

[Geno Prussakov]

Originally Posted by Zeus

Geno, one of the worse job you can get here is Used Car Saleman, it comes just before Affiliate Marketer (after the take over by the parasites of our "industry").
No, it's related to gifts (I know what you're thinking)
Halloween is not that far and I do rank well for many keywords.

Nice. Very nice. The largest sale we've had over the past week was for close to $1500 (two samovars purchased through an affiliate). He's on a special 15% commission, as he is very well positioned and known. So his commission for this one sale was 50% of yours (quoted above).

Good luck, Zeus and may you see another sale as good as this within the next week!!

Geno

[Zeus]

The shopping season is coming, it's a matter of days. It's going to be good for everybody. I'm getting quite often corporate sales, large orders for people attending a convention or a special event in a company. I'm not too sharp about taxes, I'm not getting a commission on them so I don't really care but I should learn more.

I've a general question regarding corporate sales. Quite often, I've to fight with some of my merchants (or in the worse case, avoid them). Many of the merchants would like to keep the (corporate) sales for themselves. Some are telling the customer, above a qty of 10, 20... whatever call us (for special discount, arrangements,... And they don't want to pay the affiliate. You're doing the work, getting the customer in touch with the merchant and when it starts to be really juicy, you can kiss good bye your commission. I've not seen yet an affiliate contract with an exclusion for big sales, but it's happening quite often. What's your experience?

[Herb ԿԬ]

I've seen that hook on the page of a wine merchant. haven't called them on it yet (would they even listen?) but if another merchant becomes more usable I'll remember that.

[simcat]

I get 1-3 sales a month for around that amount - from one of my merchants.
Except the commision % is a lot, lot lower...

[UncleScooter]

Originally Posted by Zeus

I've a general question regarding corporate sales. Quite often, I've to fight with some of my merchants (or in the worse case, avoid them). Many of the merchants would like to keep the (corporate) sales for themselves. Some are telling the customer, above a qty of 10, 20... whatever call us (for special discount, arrangements,... And they don't want to pay the affiliate. You're doing the work, getting the customer in touch with the merchant and when it starts to be really juicy, you can kiss good bye your commission. I've not seen yet an affiliate contract with an exclusion for big sales, but it's happening quite often. What's your experience?

It is that mindset that if they don't make full blown retail margin on a sale they don't have to pay the affiliate, which is of course a load of crap!
A merchant should pay affiliate commissions equal to or greater than their own cost of sale acquisition. Their commission should be equal to their advertising budget and all other promotional costs as well as any salesman commission they might pay. As far as the merchant is concerned, the affilaite hands them sales they would not have had otherwise (unless the affiliate is a parasite and rapes their own traffic, but that is another post) so all sale acquisition costs should be paid to the affiliate and the merchant makes the profit.
If the merchant makes a large sale through one of their other channels and has to discount the sale and take a smaller margin, if their affilaite program is paying the proper commission amount it should make NO DIFFERENCE where that sale came from. If paying an affiliate commission on a large sale with a bulk discount attached makes them lose money, they are paying too high of a commission on their affiliate program to begin with. Otherwise they are just being greedy and cheating their affiliates.
All JMO of course.

[Billy Kay]

envious :0
but happy for you

[Vinny O'Hare]

Very Nice Sale WTG