In-House Developed Affiliate Program Software
Affiliate Program Software Characteristics & User Feedback

I have reproduced the comments about 12 affiliate systems that were custom programmed. Comments will help you think about program needs that you may not thought of otherwise. I find it interesting that the ratings for these over all is only 6.42 out of 10, indicating that "build your own" is not always the answer either. :-)

Used for: Both Affiliate and Tracking
How long used: Over 1 year
How many affiliates: 450+

Positive: It was developed from the platform we use for other advertising/marketing functions

Negative: Lack of being able to do what some other affiliate programs can.

Intuitive Web Interface: yes

Build In-House Again: NA

Used for: Running an Affiliate Program
How long used: I'm doing my own
How many affiliates: Just starting

Positive: Little to none of the ones I've looked at.

Negative: They don't want to fit our in house Rewards Program. All I need is an outside source to keep track of commissions for us and the affiliates.

Build In-House Again: I don't know what to purchase. I will explore your list and hope for the best

Used for: Running an Affiliate Program
How long used: 5 months
How many affiliates: 200+

Positive: After looking over all of the "off the shelf" and "affiliate services," we didn't like any of them - so, we paid a programmer to make a program that did exactly what we wanted. The cost was actually less than any of the "off the shelf" products and it works like a charm.

Negative: Nothing ... it does exactly what we wanted it to do, the way we wanted to do it.

Intuitive Web Interface: Yes

Build In-House Again: Yes

Other: Ask any knowledgeable programmer and you will discover that you can have your own affiliate program software developed for less than that available, and, most importantly, the program will do what you want done, the way you want it done.

Used for: Running an Affiliate Program
How long used: 20 months
How many affiliates: 2000

Positive: It fits our unique niche

Negative: Reporting is poor -- we've learned a lot more about what our partners want and are trying to re-write the software to fit our needs.

Intuitive Web Interface: Yes

Build In-House Again: Not sure. I need to evaluate the software you're looking into and see if it can be modified to work within our system.

Used for: Tracking Advertising
How long used: 8 months
How many affiliates: 151

Positive: up-to-the-minute notification of sales, they write the checks

Negative: can't have more than a one-tier program.

Intuitive Web Interface:

Build In-House Again: Cost is great, but I'd rather have my own software -- just can't afford it right now.

Other:

Used for: Running an Affiliate Program
How long used: Five years total
How many affiliates: 19,000

Positive: It does everything I need.

Negative: Sometimes it takes a few minutes before my changes are implemented...

Intuitive Web Interface: Yes.

Build In-House Again: No question, I would do it the same way. There is no 3rd party provider or software solution that can provide the flexibility and customization of an in-house solution. There is no way our program would work without it.

Other: There was no choice back in 1996. You had to write it yourself if you wanted anything like this. But even today, any merchant running a serious business had better be using some sort of database. There is no reason why you cannot use this database to handle every piece of tracking a 3rd party can provide, and you have full control of what your affiliates see and hear from you.

Used for: Both Affiliate and Tracking
How long used: Jan 1 we launched
How many affiliates: 200+ averaging

Positive: tracking is good,

Negative: It doesn't have everything I want yet, but it's coming with more data. (I want to know which type of links webmasters prefer to use, as well as which links generate the highest response rates for consumers, and the overall popularity of all our sites (we have about 30 sweepstakes sites aimed at different target demographic groups).

Intuitive Web Interface: Fairly much, we are making adjustments for added functionality, but it's good. Sometimes programmers aren't interested in interface for internal projects, but there is always balance to be achieved.

Build In-House Again: Certainly

Other: I am lucky enough to work at a company that has the reliable hardware and knowledge base to support an in-house solution tailored to fit our needs. I work on a team with experienced webmasters, designers and IT managers, with an executive team bringing solid business savvy to the table -- many of the elements crucial to success. I have worked at places before where one or more of these elements was not present, and the outcome was not what it could have been as a result. I hope other marketing professionals have the same resources I have available to me now.

Used for: Running an Affiliate Program
How long used: 3 years
How many affiliates: 50

Positive: We built it, it works the way we need it to right now. We have very few shopping cart sales, but we do need to recognize the source of referrals to our many, many web forms.

Negative: It "only" does what we need right now! :) It is very rudimentary. There is no reporting. All referral information is included in the admin sales receipt and from our web form responses. It gives us the referral user id if there is one. That's all it does

Interface: What admin interface? :)

Build In-House Again: It's been just right for what we've needed until now. We're talking a low-volume but reliable solution.

Other:

Used for: Both Affiliate and Tracking
How long used: 8 months
How many affiliates: 125

Positive: Internal control, no compromise of data (I know of situations where my clients' data was diverted to other vendors by Be Free and Commission Junction).

Negative: Requires staff time to program changes to reports, add link methods, etc.

Interface: No.

Build In-House Again: Yes. I can find no third-party solution that meets our needs for features AND control of our data.

Other:

Used for: Both Affiliate and Tracking
How long used: Since Jan. 1997
How many affiliates: 1500

Positive: Provides the reporting our affiliates need so very little human interaction is required on our part.

Negative: It does not tie in to our accounting system and automatically generate payments.

Interface: Very.

Build In-House Again: Yes.

Other:

Used for: Both Affiliate and Tracking
How long used: 12 months
How many affiliates: 600

Positive: I like everything about this software :-) It is made for us by us.

Negative:

Interface: Very easy

Build In-House Again:

Other: If somebody wants to market this software or have this software for their purpose, do let me know.

Used for: Both Affiliate and Tracking
How long used: About 9 months so far
How many affiliates: 3000

Positive: It gives me total control and no one online has a software which can offer such in depth things and ease of use like this one. I've been offered to sell a copy for over $10,000 and I refused and won't ever do that as the software is genuine and is a masterpiece. It tracks everything I need and lets a non-techie guy like me do everything needed to maintain a program which is one step beyond the competition. I have checked most of the software listed in your list and well mine has all of those features and than some more which I won't reveal here... It is fully automatic and allows anyone to run the program, basically if I wanted to I could spend only 10 minutes a day running the program as everything is automatic which is something no one else offers. Another benefit is that I don't owe a 3rd party any commissions plus allowing me to pay higher commissions to my loyal affiliates.

Negative: Not perfect yet... My programmer is working on this one for over 18 months now and I get him to perfect things all the time and add new features which are light years away from the industry. I guess that it won't be perfect for me until I won't be able to pay anymore for development... ;-) Seriously what I don't like is that I still have to spend some time a day -- even 10 minutes making sure that everything runs correctly... (Just go over some reports and stuff like that) When it'll be able to totally replace me I'll be happy than...;-)

Interface: There is no easier interface... All click and it's done... It's the smartest software out there... ;-)

Build In-House Again: Yep... I buy upgrades all the time.. And anyone having the choice to buy it would do that when seeing the endless benefits list...

Other: Special features.. Well I did say I'd prefer not to reveal those but I'll give you one... What other programs fail to do today is save themselves... What happens if you are running the best program but bang it went down -- your server burned... No hard drive... Back ups? Well I'd like to see someone going and somehow reinstating hundreds of megabytes of backups of reports - if it is possible at all for them. You have to get a programmer to do it for you... That is if you have backups... People are lazy and tend not to backup on their own. I know I'm one who doesn't do it. Well a superb feature of the system is that it does it's own backups daily automatically. And in case of a system burn out I can use any backup and within less than a minute the program is back to normal -- backup restoration utility.... That is priceless in case of a disaster....