Ill send you some contacts, just in case. Being stuck in the middle of somewhere with nothing but edelweiss for food can drive your cuckoo clock quite mad. James if u get stuck just yodel! And keep Mid Nov free, I feel an affy French trip coming on. Ohhhh hows your Swiss German? Tooo exciting. You going on your own?

Seriously though, there’s always at least 3 sides to any argument – see:

http://www.jamesavery.co.uk/2007/09/10/a-few-of-the-things-i-like-about-switzerland/

James… are you going to live in Switzerland? Or just buying a place to rent out? Shout if you need help and when you get there, don’t mention the war ;0P There is neutral and then there is perhaps not as neutral as some would like to remember. Ohhhh controversial!

Sorry, hunting is a word with potentially violent connotations – I am going to search for an accommodation solution .

Pay Per lead programs are a bit tricky, but most affiliate networks have loads anti fraud features and I cant believe that any affiliate network would not care if their clients are having high volumes of fraudulent leads, would leave a bitter taste in every ones mouth. Where by there is a program which has a potential loop hole, go back and look at the structure of the program and work with the network to close the whole. Please do remember, the merchant has the final call on if a lead is legitimate or not. Either way work with your chosen aff network and plug those holes. Prevention is better then the cure.

Without knowing you or your company or what products and or services you provide, I can’t really give you an accurate answer. I would always say you can never spend too many hours on your affiliate program. The resources needed, ideally, will be for your affiliate manager to have access to your website analytics, other marketing personnel, access to technical resources and graphics. Make sure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing before passing information over to the affiliates. You get out what you put in.

Re commission funding float, its like an escrow account. Some networks prefer that you can show that you have the funds to pay an affiliate before they start working for you and whist they are working for you. Most networks now have this option. It’s a clear signal to affiliates that you are serious. You need to also understand that in the past, there have been occasions where by the merchant had absconded without paying their affiliates. As affiliate marketing has a huge emphasis upon trust between all parties concerned, having an escrow account, of which you are in total control of, bridges this particular trust issue. I think it’s a very positive signal to have this. How ever there are some merchants that really can’t do this. Usually it’s the bigger brands and to be honest, the big brands would not welcome the publicity if they did not pay their invoices ;0)

Have a great weekend

You also said that merchants needed to factor in resources to run their affiliate program. How many hours per week would you recommend? We are thinking about getting an in-house affiliate manager and we need to know what kind of resources we will need, can you remind me what you were talking about. Also what was the commission floating, surely we don’t pay affiliates in advance?

Best regards – John Evelyn

Mr Peanut Butter, Im taking time off next week, I cant promise that I wont work, but I will work less

Joe, always too brief and always a pleasure to see you, next time drink your coffee while it is still hot… next time Ill tell you u have coffee :0)

Just one thing to point out though, my surname’s not Wheatley it’s Hegarty, done some stupid things in my time but never been that stupid (only joking Paul if you’re reading this).