Oct 13, 2010
Affiliate Software- Build or Buy
If you are planning to set up an affiliate network and want to have a strong technology platform to support your network, you would face a fork in the road build or buy, 10 years ago this decision might have been easier with Affiliate network platforms not vastly developed, there were limited choices, but situation today is more complex, so factors that will drive decisions today will be significantly different from what were there 10 years ago.
Central theme in the whole discussion remains the same though will the solution i select be scalable, flexible and secure to cater to my business needs not only of today but next 5 years also.
In this context as part of one of our consulting assignment we helped one of our clients to take this decision, while our analysis was focused for the current client in consideration , but there are some general pointers which can help other folks who are looking to set up their own affiliate networks.
- Time to Market
- Development Costs
- Maintenance costs
- Up-gradation Costs
- Customization
- Initial Set up cost
- Customer preferences
- Availability of best industry features
In my next post I will share a case study where we used some of these pointers to evaluate buy versus build decision for an online media company.
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Build |
White Label Ø
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Pros
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ØFeatures Flexibility available
ØCustomization with respect to your market/customers.
ØCustomization in following feature
• Tracking system
• User Interface
• Reporting Structure
• Incentives to Advertisers/affiliates
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Ø Time to Market- very low
Ø Cheaper to set up a network
Ø Latest features are available as industry leaders keep on updating the software.
ØStandardized Softwares- Your affiliates will be used to it .
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Cons |
ØLong development times
ØMaintenance of the software.
ØConstant updates to match upto the competition
Ø Development team to be maintained
ØStrong Entrenched players to compete if you want to white label
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ØLower differentiation- White label solutions are easily detected
Ø Sub-id tracking is poor.
ØIncreased costs as your network increases for hosted
solutions. Ø Maintenance for stand alone softwares.
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