Case Study: Creating The Bottom Line Secrets Affiliate Program

5th July 2000 - To continue with our case study...

Michael Feldstein announced, last Friday, that the Bottom Line affiliate program was open for business. Well, we thought it was. I was able to get a test page up on TaxMama - and it seemed to work

However, we couldn't get BottomLine to show up in Commission Junction's database. Several HelpMates wrote to me letting me know they couldn't locate the merchant - THANK YOU! Somehow, the tracking codes that seemed to be working on Thursday weren't working on Friday. Well, on Monday, after some more tweaking by Lisa, Michael's programmer - who once thought she had a life, and lots of help from Chris Stone at CJ.com - we got everything up and operational. (Some comments from Jonathan Ezor will have me making some corrections on the affiliate page later today.)

Incidentally, CJ will be sending our announcement of the new merchant out to their members today. But, last night, there were already 70 affiliates signed up. Of course, not one had put up a link yet....

We'll be getting our product links set up this week, along with the pages for the Tax Hotline.

So, if you're looking for an affiliate item to market from your site, take a look at the Bottom Line. They've got a great publication, solid reputation, excellent commission rates (oh yes, and extra 2% base commission for HelpMates), and the company is solid enough to still be here to pay commissions and fulfill the subscriptions years from now. (A serious consideration as companies keep shutting down now that the venture capital is drying up.)

If you are saving these case study issues, they will help you get your own affiliate program up and running. If you are not, they will be available online (soon...)

Your Humble Guide,

Eva Rosenberg