Getting listed on cashback websites (Quidco, topcashback etc)

cem

For more visibility and marketing, I would like to explore getting listed on the sites above. I have searched and they refer to using affiliate websites. Having never used them before and niot being able to find anything which says 'a b c...' - Do any of you folks how this would work?

Have you had your website listed on any cashback websites?
How do you tie in affiliate websites with this?
What level of costs are involved?

Many thanks in advance

paddyrg

Your site would need to handle affiliate tracking for them to be able to work with you. You would then track a link coming in from one of those companies sites, then at the close of the sale, send the appropriate amount of commission to Quidco etc. Will take some time and expertise to set up (well there will be some simple-looking solutions, but to implement them rigorously will take some work eg if an order gets cancelled, if the punter tries buying via multiple cashback/affiliates/etc) and is worth spending the time as this is real money we're talking about - one screw up can be expensive.

Try asking the sites if they recommend any particular affiliate systems that integrate with your shopping cart/back office system and their own systems.

InsideInsurance

Affiliate schemes are expensive to get into unless your a major player and can call the shots with them.

Speak to the cashback sites and see if they recommend any of the networks, also check with your website software to see if it has built in support for any of the networks. Hopefully you will find one that works for both and so your challenges become simply a business one rather than a technology one as well.

Networks will require you to add code to your site which enables them to track people from coming from external sites through clicking a link to your site and through your site to making a purchase. As I say though, some shopping carts have built in support for the bigger companies like TradeDoubler.

Most networks will require you to pay them a set up cost, a flat monthly management fee and then on top of that a fee per sale generated (normally a percentage of the transaction value). That sale fee is then split with the lions share going to the advertising site and the rest retained my the network. With cashback sites evidently they then pass that fee on back to the consumer but normal affiliate marketing sites keep it as their income.

The costs aren't low at all and if you are seriously considering doing this I would STRONGLY suggest speaking to an expert internet marketing person before signing up for the services to ensure you get the best return on your investment.