Are you an Affiliate or a Super Affiliate?

A lot of retail sales are generated through affiliate marketing and affiliate relationships. You may recall perhaps ordering an item via a website but the dispatch order that arrived with the item was not the same. One of these websites is Amazon.co.uk.

An affiliate will carry out the advertising and the sales that are driven from that marketing. The affiliate generally has a wider wingspan in terms of advertising. In return, the affiliate expects commission from the retailer. Occasionally, affiliates will have more than one website generating the leads/sales, but they will consider which affiliate programme they choose very carefully (comparing commission rates, red tape and the reliability of the retailer to deliver) to maximise revenue.

The retailer has all the connections for logistics and distribution, plus their overheads for a sales and a marketing department would be almost zero.

In contrast, a Super Affiliate is a small army of virtual sales people; this may produce more results than hundreds or even thousands of affiliates combined. This relationship is normally closer and includes affiliate manager positions within the organisation. These managers will not be involved in administration duties but in generating results.

The demand for super affiliates does involve great benefits, they have more leverage than an affiliate so achieving a better rate, more substantial slice of the profit pie or customised commissions. The disadvantage is that if the retailer was unable to deliver, the reputation of the super affiliate would be damaged and being a super affiliate normally means that you are a household name.

Many organisations look to blend the two, while maintaining good revenue – but are you the web advertiser with an affiliate relationship or do you supply a significant percentage of revenue via an affiliate program.