I am on several affiliate programs and I enjoy some of them more than others but this is, for me, why SFI is different and sometimes better than the others:
- There are a lot more income streams in SFI both in quantity and in variety. There are AT LEAST 6 different ways of making money but also these ways are different from each other enough to cater for different personality styles. When I started SFI, some of the methods intimidated me but thankfully there were enough of a variety of others to give me some choice. Since the, I used them all because I have better understood how I can apply them to suit my personality.
- You have the opportunity not just to speak to the people who created the affiliate system but with everyone else who works in it. Although some affiliate systems try to build communities, SFI is the only one that actually succeeds. It is thanks to the strength of their community organisation that you can ask questions like you did on Ask SC and receive so many and varied (again) answers according to everyone's experience. This is an invaluable source of knowledge.
- Until I started SFI, I had not really understood my responsibilities as an affiliate. I knew I could make money with my affiliate schemes but I was never truly active in them. Most of these schemes have no resources, no training, no real affiliate experience themselves to understand what is truly needed to assist 'ordinary' people to become, well, marketing people. From having some links on website and mentioning it to friends at times (which is the most active I thought I could be), I became an active seller, following best marketing practices (not passive marketing or even ridiculously aggressive sales pitches) provided to me for free on SFI.
- One of the best promotional element that works wonders (I know for using it) is the gift card. SFI understood that (as well as one of the other schemes I use). Now, it is one thing to offer gift cards to help promote TripleClicks.com because it is one of the best incentive for trying the shop out for strangers when you give them what is in effect free access to sample it. On the other hand though, no other place that I use apart from SFI offer it for such a low price (less than $1 per gift card worth $12!) and for such a big return (100VPs and some MRPs too when you get the gift cards, 10VP when you register your giftcard distribution, commissions on what they buy and that for life, any VPs associated with their buys if they are not an SFI affiliate which they tend to not be in the beginning...
- Not only do you make money by referring people and getting them to buy at TripleClicks but you can also refer businesses. Imagine earning commissions for life on any business you get to register on TripleClicks and list their items there! What do they gain? One of the other places I am an affiliate in asks for £30 a month for a business using their store. At TripleClicks, ECAs (as the businesses are called, stands for ecommerce associates) pay nothing for being there. Listing is easy. The sales cut is 15% minimum less than the other company I am in (they take 20%, Paypal does as well). You can give TripleClicks more than 15% which equals to advertising investment since that boosts your display in the latest items page but you don't have too. On top of that, the money taken is used to distribute to affiliates including you, the referrer.
- you can have your own business there because it means that you are strengthening TripleClicks, adding to the quality and quantity of its products and services and giving all affiliates an opportunity to refer your products and thereby advertise for you! Also you plug into over 2 million customers for free, with marketing methods and tools to reach them.
- Unfortunately a lot of platform are resting on the royalties of their past successes and not much is moving. One of the things I like the most about SFI/TripleClicks is the fact that it is constantly changing for the best. It is not just improving what worked to do so even better, it is embracing new methods, and has new tools and income streams being constantly developed. It is difficult to get bored.
- Apart from gift cards, there are different exciting ways of attracting potential clientèle, be it auctions that offer the opportunity to get some excellent items such as laptops and iPhones at a fraction of their retail prices, online games that keep active minds buzzing, and a lot more.
Sorry I've gone on this long, but I am hoping, having given you only a fraction of the differences and what potentially makes SFI better than others, to have helped, at least in part, with your questions.
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