Here’s yet another affiliate success story with Apple products at the core. We recently heard from Julian Zitsch of Appslication.de and also saw the “other side of the story” – a vendor’s success with affiliates – DEVONtechnologies.
Now it’s time for Misha Sakellaropoulo, COO at MacUpdate, to share with us the company’s approach to affiliate marketing, favorite promotions and advice to new affiliates. Established in 1997, MacUpdate has quickly become one of the leading software directories just for Mac, and affiliate sales have played a big role in its ongoing success.
Bonus: eBook: 100 Tips For Successful Affiliate Selling.
1. How did you get into the Affiliate Industry?
MacUpdate is the premier Mac-only software directory. We have been online since 1997. Because we’re a directory, the affiliate model is a natural fit for us.
2. Describe your business in 3 words.
Apps, marketing, sales.
3. What’s the best part of earning money as an affiliate?
From my point of view, it’s almost free money! Being an affiliate requires very little maintenance and enables us to monetize the traffic we’re already sending to participating affiliate partners, in addition to providing an incentive to improve the quality of those leads.
4. Is there a secret to success in the affiliate business?
The best affiliate experience is one our audience doesn’t even notice. While some publishers may have good luck “spamming” their audience with affiliate links, we feel that simply recommending the best titles (that we hope also participate in an affiliate program) provides the best outcome for all partners.
5. Name the most valuable services an affiliate network could bring to you.
In addition to making it easy to track new affiliates that are added to the network, the ability to run promotions (like coupon codes) is invaluable, and something Avangate excels at.
6. What advice would you give to a new software affiliate?
Reward your top affiliates with one-time or recurring bonuses for hitting certain sales thresholds. And allow publishers to coordinate their own short-term promotions, like a limited-time coupon code. The discount for these coupons should be taken from the publisher’s side (meaning there is no impact on unit revenue for the software affiliate).
Many thanks to Misha for talking to us about MacUpdate’s affiliate practices and recommending bonuses to reward affiliates! Stay tuned to get more top tips from our next Avangate Affiliate Interview.
