David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

Last month I wrote that gift vouchers were a fine and dandy way to incentivise me. They still are, but not everyone is motivated by vouchers.

Following Sunshine's incentive that is sending me off to Orlando Florida, I thought it would be quite apt to write about what ranks highly in my overall incentives list, given unlimited merchant capital and love!
 
Free Car

I remember a while back one bingo merchant was offering a free car as a prize. I'm not a bingo affiliate and I'm not sure how successful it was at generating exposure but I liked the idea.

Cars are very subjective and what one person likes another does not so I imagine a promotion like this would have to be as open as possible to maximise the outcome for merchants. Furthermore, the merchants would need to consider their objectives. A contest to see who can sell the most isn't money well spent.Why? Because super affiliates will win that every time. There wouldn't be that much difference in sales volumes if the incentive wasn't offered. Product specific competitions (e.g. who can sell the most bananas) would be fairer but still don't float my boat.

In my opinion incentives should be viewed as motivators and loyalty generators, not necessarily sales boosters. Why? Let's look at a practical example. I won a holiday based on my work not sales. The upshot is that I am considering extending my work in the travel sector with Sunshine in mind. Also, if they asked for anything web-wise, I would more than likely bend over backwards for them. I will be a reliable affiliate who (whilst not generating the most revenue) can help with exposure, etc.


If Sunshine offered free cars, they would be ... .... plastered with the sunshine logo!

Free Holiday

Hmm, wonder why this is on the list ;-)

The last competition generated a fair amount of interest but not as much as I would have expected. The rules were simple. Pick a location, choose any dates available on the website (anytime up to around mid-2009) and suggest an itinerary. You didn't even need a website as Sunshine understood the prize was an incentive. As stated above, it wasn't designed to generate massive short term sales. It was designed with the long term, loyalty and respect in mind.

I suppose the problem here is that not everyone wants or needs a free holiday so we are back to the subjective arguement.


If Sunshine offered free holidays, they would be ... .... to anywhere you want!

Cash / Vouchers

Surely this isn't subjective? Oh, but it is!

If I was offered £1,000, I would take it :-) yet some affiliates wouldn't citing tax and VAT issues. The only way around that then is vouchers but these now restrict the spending. I'm more than happy with my Screwfix purchases made using a voucher.

I suppose there is an arguement here that if affiliates work in an area unrelated to them other than by money, vouchers may not be rewarding. For example, if you run a blog about cars and advertise pink sat nav systems, you may not be too interested in driving your BMW or Audi around with a pink sat nav systems.

So Which Is Best?

Personally, I've stopped chasing most incentives. For a while they got the better of me and I lost a lot of time trying to win TV's and the like. I would still like to win but I no longer make a conscious effort.

Instead I tend only to pursue incentives from either merchants I work with closely or those that have got rave reviews to the effect that I would be mad if I didn't try (i.e. Sunshine).

I avoid merchants who run sales based incentives. Where these are offered I feel that I have no chance at winning in amongst a crowd of cashback and discount voucher code sites and so don't bother entering. That then reflects badly on the merchant as I would now give more time to those that do care about us smaller affiliates than those trying to butter up the big boys (so to speak).

For me, a freebie isn't just that. It's a vote of confidence. It's a commitment from the merchant to wholeheartedly support me as an affiliate. It's the start of a long and prosperous bond. Surely that's exactly what an incentive is all about?

So what would I prefer as an incentive out of all the above? Any of them so long as the merchant has their heart in the right place. A great incentive with short minded goals are useless in building a portfolio of reliable, hard working small affiliates.

Unannounced Incentives

It's worth mentioning that the best incentives are those that are unannounced. A letter to say thanks with a gift voucher. A box of chocs as a pat on the back. Looking through my list of incentives and gifts, I've only ever received one gift as a genuine pat on the back (Sunshine.co.uk). I've never received anything (email, telephone call, letter) from any other merchants to say congrats on various projects. Christmas round my place is a lonesome time - the past two I received one card from a merchant. I work with hundreds.

To conclude, it's not always about money in this industry. Some of us do actually care about our merchants and it would be nice to see merchants caring about the forgotten affiliates. Sunshine has done a great job in my eyes of developing a good solid relationship with smaller affiliates. Let's hope the majority of merchants follow suit.