epoch has a deal with MPA3 so if you use epoch I think you have to option to
use MPA3 through them. Not 100% sure...if I'm wrong someone please correct
me.
Also if you use VXSbill (own merchant account) you can use their custom
software which is the same as what payserve is using.
There's pro's and con's to each of the options really you just have to check
what fits best to what you want. Even getting a custom program built has
con's for example webmasters may be suspicious about it. A lot of people
somehow got the idea stuck in their mind that if you use a recognized
program like Nats or MPA3 they won't get cheated. Or in some cases with
MPA3 that they will get cheated because years ago some program that used
MPA3 was caught for using a shaving module.
Fact is that people shave, software doesn't. And there isn't any software
that can and will prevent that. There's many different ways to shave
affiliates regardless how they do it. You can even shave using CCbill their
program and apart from the software you can do it manually.
No company will ever admit that whether they have ever built plugins that
can do it automatically..but take my word for it..I've seen many different
programs that offered such module on request. Software companies don't
come up with such feature..the ones that have built them in the past have
done so by request just like most other features you see in software today.
The rare exceptions of companies that truly never did doesn't exempt them
for the possibility of adding such feature by others as all systems allow 1 way
or another to add code/scripts and call them through templates or plugin api
modules.
Getting your own custom build software isn't viable for most programs simply
because it takes way too long to build something that's anywhere near as
good as the available software on the market is. Once you have developed
a system is just the start of it. All the variables that come into play which
need to be covered takes years to solve and you'll only discover them in
practice by discovering all these things based on data generated in a live
situation. So to just build a system that looks like an affiliate program and
does what you want it to do still needs to be adjusted for what all your
affiliates will do with it.
Taken all that into account imho there's hardly any programs today that
would go through all this and benefit by doing that....defenitely not in the
short run....if they manage to get it all tight in what....2 to 3 years adding
all the cost, money lost due to the leaks that cheaters exploited before you
discovered and fixed them is a hell of a lot more expensive than just buying
or leasing something that's out there.
And I haven't even mentioned the cost of very skilled coders and the risk
and problems you expose yourself to in case you lose them somewhere
down the line. Even when all is completed they have to keep developing
it full time just to keep up with all the changes in our industry. Nowadays
that's just not worth it unless you have a team of kickass coders and you
also will sell the software at some point just like TMM and Mansion do.
Realistically the only real disadvantages of using existing software is that
to some extend you depend on the software company for updates, fixes
and support of their software. That can be covered in MOST cases by
not just buying a usage license but instead buy a full source code license.
Most programs on the market do offer such license upon request. Yes that
doesn't come cheap but compared with building something similar yourself
it's still a fraction of the cost of building it yourself. Anyone who tries to
make you believe different has no clue what he's talking about.....Anyone
who thinks I'm wrong please contact me as I would be more than happy
for you to PROOF that I'm wrong. I'll gladly pay a standard price to anyone
who can provide me with an equal quality product as what's out there after
it's proven that it really is equaly good. If not.....then I guess you were wrong.
So anyone willing to take me up on this challenge.....contact info is in my
Sig....
