Affiliate marketing: good idea / bad idea?

[aldel]

Anyone have any experience with affiliate marketing, good or bad, as an affiliate or as a merchant? Specifically \"pay-per-sale\" types of arrangements. So far I've had a hard time trying to market Dork, and I'm wondering if affiliates might be the answer.

It seems like an attractive idea to let other people worry about where to advertise my product (and to pay them for results). But on the other hand, I don't want anyone sending spam on my behalf. I take it that was a major problem in the early days of affiliate networks, but supposedly they've gotten a lot better.

Any particular affiliate networks I should seek out or avoid? How much should I offer per sale (each sale is either $5.50 or $9.50)? Any other suggestions? (I know I should send press releases to game magazines; I've just been lazy about that.)

[DCrazy]

I bought it

You should really release a level editor, man. I don't play it anymore because I beat it.

I dunno if game mags still supply shareware on CD... but I guess it couldn't hurt to ask if they'd stick Dork on a business-card CD in one of their issues.

[aldel]

I bought it

I know-- and thanks! You were only the second person to buy it. (The first was my wife.)

I'll probably release the level editor eventually. I might release another set of "official" levels too.

[aldel]

By the way, in case anyone's curious/interested, I decided to try an affiliate network, ShareASale, since no one told me not to. I'm paying 40% commissions, although of course it's not on very large sales (most sales are $9.50). So if you run a popular web site or blog or anything, you can sign up (for free) here:

http://www.shareasale.com/shareasale.cf ... ntID=10836

But do it soon, because there's only about two weeks left before the deadline for canceling my membership for a refund of (most of) the merchant signup fee.

So far I've got about 30 affiliates signed up, but they're all the type who signs up as affiliates for every merchant in the world, and most of them have web sites that make mine look like the slickest professional design ever. They've sent me a tiny amount of traffic and generated zero sales.

[TIGERassault]

Good game, I must say. I'd buy it if I had a form of payment.

(I know I should send press releases to game magazines; I've just been lazy about that.)

That's the best way I can think of.