Affiliate program growth

[Evil Chris]

Originally Posted by Greenguy

If that's true & the program is using NATS or MPA, wouldn't the sale still not be credited to the affiliate? I mean, if CCBill (or any processor) screws it up, the fancy program would, by default, screw it up as well since it's just reporting the info the processor gives them.

I don't think that's necessarily true. Our stats backend works on the session ID system for example. It's at our level that the referral is made, not at the processor level.

Some good points here all around but I would have to say that to be more in control of your affiliate program and your affiliates, one would eventually have to take on a NATS, MPA, or similar service in order to grow and keep up with one's own growth.

The bells and whistles aren't just that... they are necessary tools and you want to keep things simple and uncomplicated for the affiliate or they will go away to someone else's program. Cascading billing is also a must. Once upon a time it was "nice to have" or a marketing point. Now it is fully expected by the affiliate.

If I were just starting out a new program, I think I would want to come out of the gates with my own backend control.