Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Markham
The programming wasn't the problem, it was everything else. We had 2 programmers by then. We would of needed for me to sit down and learn the traffic game and run the affiliates or get a guy in. Most peoples first complaint about a sponsor is the level of support. I tried many time to find a guy who was capable, never did. Found a lot of people who simply wanted a slice of what we were getting, they were not interested in a deal based on sales over and above our present ones, guys who wanted a flat wage, guys who were clueless and straight con-men. Got stung by 2 of them. Like some other shooters.
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So basically you wanted affiliate customer support people to work on commission only? That's got FAIL written all over it.
Affiliate customer support jobs aren't sales jobs per se - sure their efforts should help boost sales, but to expect someone whose job largely consists of helping affiliates with signing up, creating links, link placement, etc to work only on commission is not realistic.
Top sales people often steer clear of commission only jobs. Top sales people expect
base + commission. Not simply out of greed, but also necessity - sales vary over time, and more to the point, employers that don't pay a "base" presumably lack confidence in their products selling.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Markham
I suppose the problem was those who knew the game were working for themselves and those that didn't ..............
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Savvy people always look out for #1, themselves, first. Seems to me, based on the limited info you provided, the compensation structure / job expectations was the problem...
Good sales people don't have time to do day to day customer support, which is what's expected of many affiliate reps.
What muddies the issue is that an "affiliate rep" can potentially refer to a job that involves either one or both of those positions ... some are more akin to customer service while others are more akin to sales people with some affiliate reps doing both.
Anyways, rambling on ... if you'd been willing to pay a decent
base + commission that would have likely brought some good quality people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Markham
So maybe this explains why we didn't open a site earlier, why when we did we didn't spend all our time looking after it.The content business was paying us good money, from magazine and online sales. To risk that a go into something new was stupid.
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You missed the boat and now trying to reconcile it. Any savvy business always looks at its environment and plans ahead; evolves to remain relevant.
Ron