3rd Party Merchant Services


1

I'm looking for a 3rd party payment handling site to sell my software. Currently I have shortlisted Avangate (www.avangate.com) and Fastspring (www.fastspring.com). Fastspring seems to have the advantage for me on price and customer service.

However something I cannot understand is how to create an affiliate program using these sites, and which would be more effective for my affiliate program? Has anybody had any experience with creating an affiliate program with the above two sites, or any similar 3rd party payment sites?

Thanks,

Software Ecommerce Affiliate

asked Jul 31 '10 at 00:26
Blank
Tanvir Chowdhury
165 points

3 Answers


2

I don't want to rain on your parade, but unless your app is very, very special with millions of downloads, an affiliate program is unlikely to do anything other than to waste your time.

You would be much better off finishing your software, building a great web site,getting your e-commerce up and running, and marketing your product. Once you are successfully selling your software you can try affiliate programs.

The basic premise of affiliate marketing, (that someone else is going to market your software for you), is just plain wrong. A better way to think of it is, affiliate programs can increase my existing sales by 1% - 5%.

answered Jul 31 '10 at 06:46
Blank
Gary E
12,510 points
  • Gary, great advice. My app is special :), but sadly i don't foresee millions of downloads. An affiliate program is only a part of our marketing strategy, and probably wont be explored until 2-3 months after we have launched. However it's a question I need answered before I select a Merchant service. – Tanvir Chowdhury 14 years ago

0

However something I cannot understand
is how to create an affiliate program
using these sites

It is called programming. As in: Normally it is not the job of a merchant service to do affiliate stuff automagically in the background.

Check about adding Paypal to your list. Many good and bad things, but las time I checked they were quite cheap, too.

answered Jul 31 '10 at 04:02
Blank
Net Tecture
11 points

0

We use Avangate for Resolver Systems, and they're pretty good. Their affiliate scheme is pretty much transparent to you as a vendor; once you're using them to sell our software, people can sign up as affiliates from the Avangate site, and you get an email asking you to approve them or not. I believe it's pretty easy to generate your own "sign up as an affiliate" link to put on your site, too.

However, +1 to what Gary E says. The only affiliate that has sent any business our way has been Bits du Jour, with whom we do one-day discount sales. Perhaps if we actively worked with other affiliates we'd get more through them, but certainly the various random people who own "Best Software Download" sites and want to sell our software on them don't send anything serious our way.

answered Aug 6 '10 at 23:00
Blank
Giles Thomas
1,540 points

Your Answer

  • Bold
  • Italic
  • • Bullets
  • 1. Numbers
  • Quote
Not the answer you're looking for? Ask your own question or browse other questions in these topics:

Software Ecommerce Affiliate