As the creator of an engine that affiliate networks run on, I regularly talk shop with dozens of network owners. And, much to my regret, I can see that they don’t put even half of the points below into practice. So I’m asking you to really dig into each one — because there’s nothing seriously hard about building a successful affiliate network if you take the right approach and tick all 7 boxes on today’s checklist.
Point 1: A Fast, Cheap Launch
Let’s start with the big one. If you’ve already got a network up and running, feel free to skip straight to point two.
Building your own engine from scratch is a game for the rich and the supremely self-confident. A good platform like AlterCPA Pro already has every feature you need, and you can launch for a couple hundred bucks and a couple of days.
Your own engine means extra flexibility and a sense of total control — for $50,000 and six months of your life. And what if your project doesn’t take off? Won’t writing off an investment like that hurt a little too much? You’d be better off setting that money aside as a financial cushion — you’ll 100% need it. Besides, thanks to hacks, AlterCPA is flexible enough for any reasonable task, with room to spare.
If, down the line, you realize everything’s going as it should and you’re craving the perks of an engine of your own, you can always change horses midstream. But this time with a clear understanding of why you’re spending such a hefty sum, and on what exactly. And do you really need to ditch a product that’s built by professionals and road-tested by hundreds of projects in favor of a homebrew solution some amateur cobbled together?
Point 2: Affiliate Support
Setting up a proper support department for your media buyers is relatively simple and cheap. But this is exactly what will help you hang on to your affiliates and squeeze the most traffic out of them.
You need three tiers:
- Support. These are the folks who handle the routine. You don’t need to put geniuses on support, or even just pros. All it takes is people with a working brain who are always on call and help affiliates with the dead-simple stuff. Say, unlocking an offer. Or checking the current conversion rate. Or making sure the advertiser’s payment methods are working fine. And it goes without saying that support has to be an absolute sweetheart to deal with.
- Techies. You definitely need at least one of these characters. If nothing else, the network itself needs one to handle integrations with advertisers — unless you’re using our tech services. The same person can also be brought in to help affiliates. In gambling, that means wiring up postbacks and handing out apps. In nutra, e-commerce, and crypto, it means prepping sites and helping with API integrations. Plus, affiliates will have a ton of questions about cloaking. And it’s great when the network can help them sort those out.
- Affiliate managers. These are the folks who know how to run traffic. They’ll tell affiliates which accounts to buy, which card to link, and what to do about bans — basically, they act as a mentor. All so that the affiliate gets their campaigns off the ground and the network gets its traffic. This is exactly where most affiliate programs fall short, and nobody’s fixing it. Big mistake: affiliate managers are damn important, mission-critical hires.
When a network has a support department like this in place, even if a media buyer decides to jump ship, they’ll come running back in no time, wailing all the way. Even higher rates at a competitor are far from guaranteed to outweigh great service and genuine care.
Point 3: Payouts
Obviously, the sooner a media buyer gets paid, the happier they are. But this point isn’t about extra speed — it’s about stability and consistency. If your network has its business processes figured out and it’s comfortable paying out after two weeks, every Friday, then that has to be law. The only exception is when there’s a genuine suspicion of fraud. Speaking of which, here’s a little article for you: “How to Catch a Fraudster.”
I often see networks delay payouts because:
- The advertiser is late with the money transfer.
- It’s more convenient to wait until the advertiser pays for all the leads.
- We’ve got salaries to pay right now, and the affiliates can get their money after that.
- Hey, let’s check the traffic one more time.
In the moment, using arbitrageurs’ money as your working capital like this is very convenient. But there are consequences:
- Arbitrageurs leave networks that delay payouts.
- Affiliates will never recommend a network like that — not to friends, not in chats — which means the business loses its best source of new partners: word of mouth.
- Media buyers simply run out of working capital. They stop running traffic. The network stops getting any. Everybody loses.
To keep arbitrageurs from noticing your network’s cash-flow gaps, you need a hefty financial safety cushion. And this is exactly where the money you saved on the engine comes in handy.
Point 4: Promo, Services, and Other Handy Perks
Happy affiliate networks within the same vertical are almost all alike. Competing under those conditions is pretty tough. Just doing the basics competently isn’t enough. That’s why it’s a good idea to roll out as many goodies for your media buyers as you can — ones that save them time, effort, and money.
Here are a few options:
- Free gambling apps (WebView and PWA).
- Private apps for trusted affiliates and teams with solid volume.
- Landing pages and prelanders for nutra, e-commerce, and crypto. Packaged as archives, so they’re easy to download and set up on hosting behind a cloak. You can even charge for high-quality, unique pages — as long as the offer is a profitable one.
- High-quality photos and videos for e-commerce and nutra.
- Creatives. Even in gambling, where a single creative can cost close to $60, you can figure out how to get them into the hands of as many media buyers as possible on a minimal budget. For example, by adapting them for different geos. Or by charging something for them, but less than freelance designers ask. Once a network sets up a convenient, cost-effective way to get creatives, it’ll look like a real winner in affiliates’ eyes.
- Cloaking. You can simply switch on the AlterCPA One traffic filter that’s already built into your affiliate network and give affiliates free, high-quality cloaking — saving them money and a whole lot of headaches.
- Smartlinks. Building a ready-to-go, cloaked smartlink inside AlterCPA isn’t all that hard.
- Analytics tools inside the network’s dashboard that can replace a tracker.
Point 5: Contests, Bonus Programs, and Referrals
In the minds of affiliate network founders, bonus programs and referral programs live somewhere side by side. Yet they’re completely different ways of attracting media buyers. And while bonuses have every right to exist, a referral program is a ball and chain, and you should run from it like the plague.
Under a bonus program, an affiliate earns bonuses for the volume of traffic they run. They think it’s extra profit. In reality, though, 90+% of networks simply trim the payout a little or switch on a light shave. But the media buyer is happy, because they can spend those bonuses on something nice in the network’s store (an iPhone, or at least a pack of instant noodles).
Pro tip: build your bonus catalog so that the items differ from each other by small amounts, and each one is better and more tempting than the last. That way, once an affiliate has saved up for one item, they’ll start dreaming of something bigger and keep saving, because “it’s only three hundred more points to a new iPhone.” Rinse and repeat.
Contests help get things buzzing. They usually don’t hit the budget too hard, since they’re largely covered by:
- a lower rate;
- a shave nobody notices;
- the advertiser — in which case the contest only runs on that particular advertiser’s offers.
I’m not a fan of these promotion methods, but they have their place. To tick this box, though, you need to make sure you’re not running a referral program!
In theory, a referral scheme sounds great. Affiliates bring in other affiliates on their own, and the network gives away literally a couple of percent of its revenue. In practice, the overwhelming majority of the network’s payouts will end up going to referrers. And media buyers will start spinning up extra accounts to squeeze additional profit out of their own traffic. Only hand out the referral option to trusted people who can genuinely bring in new partners. To a public referral program, we say a flat-out “no”; to a private one, maybe even “yes.”
Point 6: Marketing
I’ve written about a sane marketing strategy in detail on the blog — I recommend giving it a read. Here, we’ll stick to the key points:
- Targeted social ads are a source of expensive, low-quality leads that your staff will have to sink kilo-hours into.
- Search ads can work if you get lucky with the specialist.
- Spam is bottom-of-the-barrel crap that works. I’d only recommend it if you’re desperate, because it nukes your reputation to zero — but it does get results.
- Content marketing is king. So is SEO. It’s how I grow my own projects, and I recommend it to everyone around me. It ramps up extremely slowly, but if you get lucky with the specialist, it’ll bring in quality leads for years. Cranking out quality content in volume and over the long haul is an incredibly hard task — one that slightly fewer than zero people can pull off.
I’ve worked with the AFfStudio team for so long that they’ve practically become part of our company. Get in touch — consultations are free, and the quality is top-notch!
Point 7: Conferences
When it comes to conferences, the bare minimum is to actually show up! And if you’ve got anything even slightly interesting to share, a talk won’t hurt either: you’ll gain an audience and name recognition.
Another good option is a booth. All in, it’ll set you back $5,000–10,000. But if you staff it with good (and good-looking) salespeople, it’s almost guaranteed to pay for itself.
Sponsorships and branding — forget about them. You’re better off keeping that money for the safety cushion we already talked about. Or donate it to the children of Africa.
But the absolute best, can’t-lose option is to grab a couple of cute girls, buy them passes, and dress them up in your merch. They’ll come in especially handy at the after-party. You can teach the girls some basic sales skills, or you can simply give them the job of leading potential clients by the hand to whoever on your team is best at talking to affiliates. This method costs next to nothing, yet it’s the most effective of all. And of course, it’s exactly the one I use.
The main thing: never embarrass yourself, and never wear your own branding! A project owner with their own logo on their back instantly sinks to the level of those very same promo girls.
The Bottom Line
How many boxes on this checklist does your network tick? Hopefully all 7!