▲ ▼ Single referral system for all services

posted by Abishek Muthian Ideator , 1166 days ago permalink , show insights

Affiliate marketing is the best alternative to those who don't want to encroach upon the privacy of their readers with ads which uses tracking cookies. When used in a content without conflict of interest it can add value to both the readers and the publisher.

But the current referral system is messy with,

Each product or service having tied up with a different agency for providing referral links or having their own.

Arbitrary approval criteria for new signups.

Obscure payment policies etc.

Publishers gaming the referral system where only a single eCommerce company is benefited.

There's need-gap in affiliate marketing to cut down the middlemen and to connect the advertisers with publisher directly with a single universal referral system.

WHO NEEDS THIS

▲ ▼ Abishek Muthian Ideator , 1166 days ago permalink
I propose a two part solution to address the need-gap for a single referral system,
1. Every large affiliate marketing company today touts itself as single referral system for all products and services, If that's true this problem wouldn't exist; So IMO the first thing to do would be to create a open-source non-profit public referral aggregator i.e. Say a Wikipedia for advertisers to pledge their referral fees for promoting their product or service. The publishers register with this non-profit.
2. The said non-profit tracks the referrals from the publishers using ref, utm_source tags at the advertiser end(integration needed) without the publisher having to sign-up with each advertiser individually or even having to use a separate referral link.
The non-profit can stay float using donation from both the advertisers and the publishers as it addresses the problems with current affiliate marketing system.
reply I WILL PAY FOR THAT
HOW MANY WILL PAY FOR THIS
▲ ▼ ericdmoore , 1071 days ago permalink

I used to work for a company that aggregated referral systems. These large IT groups that service large e-comm sites, like Nordstom, Macys, Target, Old Navy are set in their ways and difficult to build on top of for three reasons 1) outdated and complicated systems, 2) Poor change management - breaking changes happen all the time with little or no notice 3) there is basically negligible technical support - assuming you are admitted to the provider platform..

Making a link that sits on top of the right provider is hard enough but it's doable, getting paid the right amount if someone buys something from your link is much more the intractable problem.

reply I WILL PAY FOR THAT
HOW MANY WILL PAY FOR THIS
▲ ▼ Abishek Muthian Ideator , 1070 days ago permalink

It's always good to have someone with the subject matter experience in the discussions.

getting paid the right amount if someone buys something from your link is much more the intractable problem.
I think the obscure nature of the aggregated referral systems are the main reason for that, Then again there are reputed brands who offer affiliate links for their products themselves but don't even offer a affiliate dashboard! We just have to take their word for it when it comes conversion figures and payments.

This is why I feel an independent neutral entity which provides a unified referral system could address these problems, Where only the advertiser is required to perform a technical integration and the publisher gets paid by publicly verifiable metrics(There are laws in some countries to disclose affiliate links anyways).

reply I WILL PAY FOR THAT
HOW MANY WILL PAY FOR THIS