[LazyCarrot]

I'm looking at launching an affiliate program for my website but am wavering between one of two strategies...

Primary only - where I'd would offer a straight 20% commission on sales
Primary/Secondary - where i'd offer 10% commission on sales plus 10% commission on any sales that resulted from any secondary affiliates (ie anyone the primary affiliate introduced into the scheme).

From the affiliates viewpoint in the later case there would be no disadvantage to introducing a secondary affiliate (as opposed to me offering say a 15% / 5% split) and it means the affiliate could effectively create their own network of affiliates working for them.

However, I'm unsure how appealing that proposal would be... does anyone have any experience of running that type of program and/or how would you feel about joining that type of program?

[Convergence]

As an Affilliate, would prefer the 20%.

2nd tier signups don't happen very often and of those that do signup, they don't normally produce.

Our jobs as affiliates are to get the SHOPPER to our site, pre-sell, and get them out the door and over to the merchant. Most SHOPPERS have no idea what an affiliate program is. If the SHOPPER is an affiliate, they more than likely will buy under their own link or that of an associate and never come to another affiliate's site to shop...

[davidh]

Cutting standard commission rate in half as an "accommodation" for two-tier commission structure is hardly fair to the affiliate (probably 99.9999% of them) who makes a sale in a scenario where there is no second-tier affiliate in the picture.

It would be much fairer to just pay the standard commission to whichever affiliate makes a sale, and some incremental amount such as 1% or 2% referral fee to a first-tier affiliate. It is not uncommon to see a payout of "5% of what the second-tier affiliate makes" paid to the "upline" affiliate - which comes out to 1% of the sale amount in a case where you are paying 20% standard commission rate.

[Chuck Hamrick]

Agree with davidh, the 2nd tier should not effect the first. There are some affiliates who specialize in 2nd tier as they market to their buddies, opt-in list. Shareasale offers a 2nd tier and I have activated it on programs I manage there offering 1% to the 2nd tier. I can't say I have had much success.

If anyone can point to a 2nd Tier promotional site I am happy to test it.

[Convergence]

Originally Posted by Chuck Hamrick

If anyone can point to a 2nd Tier promotional site I am happy to test it.

PM sent...

[LazyCarrot]

Thanks for the feedback guys - i was looking at promoting secondary affiliation as an incentive to the primary affiliate to actively recruit good affiliates (rather than rely on passing customers) - but i can see the downside to that in that the good affiliates are geared up to selling product rather than recruiting a network.
Appreciate the comments - think i'll focus on providing the best deal i can.

Cheers - Phill

[Kate_Oranum]

I agree with LazyCarrot - I think that with approching primary affiliates there is a much bigger chance to recruite affiliates who will be active in the program.

[Kate_Oranum]

Originally Posted by CarlosStagner

There are some affiliates who specialize in 2nd tier as they market to their buddies

Where fo we find them ? - but from experience I can see it as well that referred webmasters seem to be much more dedicated..