[best123]

I'm building "just another" coupon site - in addition to the 100s of coupon sites out there, but I see that some of the coupon sites give cash back

I am assuming that they give back a percentage of their commission.

I wouldn't mind doing this for the community, but just setting up a pay-cash-back system and tracking everyones purchases and commissions I earned is a huge task in itself, I'm not capable of handling the load at this time but, I find that the incentivized coupon sites are a big competition for traditional non-incentivized sites.

Am I wrong? I havent made a single sale yet, don't know when it will happen.

[Alan Hamilton]

Cash back coupon incentives (rebates etc) have worked well for us in the past to get new customers recruited. When we offer C-B incentives we absorb the dollar value in house without effect to affiliate commission.

By the nature of our business once a new customer orders the first time, they are then a recurring purchase customer on an ongoing basis - so I'd recommend trying different variations of both as opposed to making it an "either - or" proposition. What you give up on the front end is well worth the investment in culturing a long term repeat customer relationship. Best of luck to you.

[best123]

Originally Posted by ALH - AmeritrustRx

Cash back coupon incentives (rebates etc) have worked well for us in the past to get new customers recruited. When we offer C-B incentives we absorb the dollar value in house without effect to affiliate commission.

By the nature of our business once a new customer orders the first time, they are then a recurring purchase customer on an ongoing basis - so I'd recommend trying different variations of both as opposed to making it an "either - or" proposition. What you give up on the front end is well worth the investment in culturing a long term repeat customer relationship. Best of luck to you.

Thanks.

In my original post I wasn't referring to "cash-back incentives from merchants" , I was referring to "cash-back from affiliate site"

Example of a casback deal is:

You will get 2 bucks back if you buy this stuff, in addition to the rebate and coupon the merchant is offering.

In this case the 2 bucks is coming from the affiliate's wallet, not the merchant's.

I would think that people obviously would choose to get the 2 bucks + merchant coupons and savings

instead of just the merchant coupons and savings.

that's why coupon sites that offer cash back, in addition to merchant savings are a big competition to coupon sites that only offer merchant savings, in my opinion

[simcat]

They are a big competition, but there are negatives to them from the customers point of view.

-They have to 'join up, give e-mail info, etc.' Some like to just get the coupon and go.
-Some require a download.... adware? spyware?
-Customers have to wait for their rebates, may never earn enough to qualify for payment.
-Some merchants might not deal w/incentive sites, reducing selection of brands.

Just a few things...

[best123]

Originally Posted by simcat

They are a big competition, but there are negatives to them from the customers point of view.

-They have to 'join up, give e-mail info, etc.' Some like to just get the coupon and go.
-Some require a download.... adware? spyware?
-Customers have to wait for their rebates, may never earn enough to qualify for payment.
-Some merchants might not deal w/incentive sites, reducing selection of brands.

Just a few things...

good points , simcat. keeps my hopes high - to make that first sale :-)

well, i've sold stuff, but only to my family and myself so far... :-( , and my site is little new and a little incomplete , so i guess i have to wait a few more months before i can see any returns.

i'm curious, why do some merchants choose not to advertise on cash-back incentivized sites ( provided that dont use spyware/adware)? Wouldn't it cost them the same if the affiliate pays the extra incentives out of his pocket/ commission?

[simcat]

"i'm curious, why do some merchants choose not to advertise on cash-back incentivized sites?"


Merchants like use their aff program as a way to attract new customers, who eventually go to the merchants directly (bypassing the affiliate comission costs).
These 'loyalty' sites Require that the customer go thru their aff link every-time to get the added bonus. So the merchant pays the aff. commision everytime.

And then theres the adware thing too...

[best123]

hmm, totally makes sense now.

all this is part of business

i just have to grin and bear it :-)

[Leader]

I've got a few (nonparasitic) ones in my program. So far, none of them have sold Jack, and they hardly send any hits, either.

An incentive site is not a "magic bullet" to get traffic and repeat sales. There are an overabundance of them, just like plain coupon sites, and every other kind of site for that matter.

Problem is, too many people still think they can just slap up a site with some kind of "hook" and have traffic warp out of nowhere, despite having no SEO skills (or advertising budget) to let people know they exist at all!

Get some traffic coming. Then, if it doesn't buy, start making changes on your site to see what goes over better.

[Alan Hamilton]

Oh, OK, got it Best. Read your post in the wee hours of the morning so misunderstood what you were asking.

[best123]

Originally Posted by Leader

I've got a few (nonparasitic) ones in my program. So far, none of them have sold Jack, and they hardly send any hits, either.

An incentive site is not a "magic bullet" to get traffic and repeat sales. There are an overabundance of them, just like plain coupon sites, and every other kind of site for that matter.

Problem is, too many people still think they can just slap up a site with some kind of "hook" and have traffic warp out of nowhere, despite having no SEO skills (or advertising budget) to let people know they exist at all!

Get some traffic coming. Then, if it doesn't buy, start making changes on your site to see what goes over better.

i have been tweking my site and improving it every day, but my site is only about 3 months old.

i dont want any incoming links yet because, its not complete yet.

so i'll keep working on it, once its ready i will start promoting incoming links to it, so BIG G can see it one day.

Except for big G no other search engines use page rank i think.

[HardwareGeek]

I use aadvantageshopping for any merchant I do not have an affiliate account with and I have already managed 3 free tickets