Questions about starting my own CPA Network

Okay people, I have some serious questions about starting my own CPA network. I know it isn't easy so you don't have to post here telling me how difficult it is and how I will probably fail. I'm hoping that people who actually know about CPA networks and are experienced in the field will be willing to share some insight with me.

Basically my situation is this: I have a large amount of capital and a modest network of trusted affiliates that I am able to recruit from to be my publishers. Some of them are people I have coached myself or who have been coached by friends of mine in different forms of marketing like PPC, PPV, Email marketing, etc. I'm sure I will have no problem recruiting the first small wave of publishers, so I don't really have to worry about that.

I think that my main concern is going to be attracting advertisers. I don't have direct connections with any advertisers right now, and I don't know anybody who does. I'm not even in any really top-tier networks myself, so I would be brokering offers from middle-tier networks like RevenueAds, NeverBlue, Maxbounty, etc. to start off, which is hardly ideal. (No offense to the mentioned networks, I simply mean to imply that they do not usually offer the best payouts possible for their offers).

I realize that it will probably be easier to start out brokering offers from other networks instead of going straight to the advertisers, so if necessary I will do that until I have a modest reputation. I don't really know which networks allow smaller networks to broker their offers though, and I also don't know what attracts bigger networks to smaller networks, so I'd appreciate if people could give me feedback on that. I know that even some of the most popular networks are brokering their offers.

This leads to my first question:

What affiliate network software do you recommend?
I know that people are going to tell me to avoid HasOffers at all costs. I want to use software that is not only good tracking software, I want my network software to let advertisers and publishers know that I am serious about this. I've kind of narrowed it down to two choices: Hitpath and Cake Marketing. If people have other suggestions feel free to give them to me, but I really feel like these are two of the best choices. They both run at about $1,500 per month, which is slightly expensive, but it is worth it to let advertisers and publishers know that this is a serious network. Cake marketing is fairly new and relatively unknown compared to Hitpath, but the people who I have talked to that do know of Cake Marketing say that it is great. Hitpath is proven tracking software that is widely used in some of the best affiliate networks, but I can't really get a clear idea of how it stacks up with Cake marketing.

Can anyone who is a publisher and especially anyone who is an advertiser or who works at a CPA network that allows network publishers share some insight as to what attracts them to certain networks?

How should I meet advertisers?
That pretty much says it all. The only thing I can think of besides emailing advertisers and praying that they respond is going to Affiliate Summit, Ad:tech, etc, and trying to talk face to face with advertisers. Unfortunately I am sort of young and look even younger than my actual age. People have honestly told me that I look like I am still in high school. I'm afraid that looking young will make me seem inexperienced (which I am, lol) and thus make advertisers and bigger networks less likely to work with me.

Does anyone have a list of networks that work with smaller networks?
I have found some of these networks just by backtracking the affiliate links on my own CPA accounts. For example, I see that a lot of companies pull their offers from CPABuilder. Does anyone know of any other networks that frequently use smaller networks as their publishers?

How do Advertisers and Networks handle Network traffic?
There is one issue that has been nagging me. A lot of the affiliates that I would be recruiting publishers from are in relatively high risk verticals like credit reports, free trials, and EDU. These verticals are all highly susceptible to fraud, and I want make sure that my advertisers do not try to screw me. For example, say I had one affiliate that was pushing credit report offers on CL and 5 others who were doing them legit. Since I am passing the sub ids of each of my affiliates to the network that I am pulling the offer from, will they say "Affiliate XXX is giving us too many charge-backs, we can't pay you for him, but we will pay you for the other affiliates", or will they say "Affiliate XXX is giving us too many charge-backs, your other affiliates are doing alright, but too bad, we're banning your account and aren't giving you anything."

Will networks change their payment terms for other networks?
Most of the networks I work with now pay NET30 and aren't willing to pay any faster. When I have my own network though, it would be advantageous if they could pay me faster than that, say NET15 or preferably weekly. Does anyone who has their own networks get faster payment terms from other networks for pushing larger volumes of traffic than normal publishers?

How does a network gain popularity among marketers?
This won't be an issue at first, but eventually I will want to grow my publisher base so that I can make more money, etc. I am wondering if anyone who runs their own network could tell me the best ways they recommend. Do banner ads on AffiliatePaying.com work?

That's all for now, but I may have more questions in the future. Sorry for making the post so long, and thanks for reading if you got this far.

1- I am not affiliated with them
2- it is not the greatest idea but it should help
3- If you are making good money with a CPA Network you can fish some info from any AM

Yeah, the thing about hasoffers is that they are extremely cheap, which is good, but it means that a lot of completely unprofessional networks use it and they kind of give all the other hasoffers networks a bad name. As a publisher I am always wary when I see a hasoffers network because they often spring up and then die a few months later, usually without paying their publishers.

Okay, this isn't really my field but I know a few aff network owners so let me go through quickly:

Software: hasoffers is cheap and cheerful

Meet advertisers: go to industry events. If you don't already have contacts this is going to be hard.

Payments: if you're going to be brokering offers, what exactly can you offer affiliates? You'll have to pay weekly at least to make it worth their while, so you'll need to be able to float the payments until you get paid net 30 (if you have advertisers, some will pay you net 60, maybe even net 90).

As to who I would work with, I pick my networks based on: speed of payout, advertiser relationships and customer service. Nothing else. The network that gets 90% of my traffic has the coolest AMs who will do ANYTHING to get us driving more traffic. They also don't broker offers so they can offer me a good payout.

meathead1234 said:

Okay, this isn't really my field but I know a few aff network owners so let me go through quickly:

Software: hasoffers is cheap and cheerful

Meet advertisers: go to industry events. If you don't already have contacts this is going to be hard.

Payments: if you're going to be brokering offers, what exactly can you offer affiliates? You'll have to pay weekly at least to make it worth their while, so you'll need to be able to float the payments until you get paid net 30 (if you have advertisers, some will pay you net 60, maybe even net 90).

As to who I would work with, I pick my networks based on: speed of payout, advertiser relationships and customer service. Nothing else. The network that gets 90% of my traffic has the coolest AMs who will do ANYTHING to get us driving more traffic. They also don't broker offers so they can offer me a good payout.

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So when you see a brand new network running on hasoffers you don't think that it makes the network seem unprofessional? I ask because I am trying to make my network seem as legit as possible so that when I use it to apply to other networks they don't have any reservations about accepting me. I also don't want publishers to be hesitant about joining me just because of my affiliate tracking software.

As for weekly payouts, a few of the networks that I am working with now start their publishers off at NET30, but once a publisher has sent high quality traffic for at least one or two payment terms and is doing high volumes, they move that publisher up to faster payments. I think that is what I am going to do. I am definitely not going to start everyone off on weekly payments, only people I already know and trust.

nice to see this topic , cause i'm like you , i'm building my own network now , since I worked two years ago and currently making big numbers . I also looked through some information so :

1. Hasoffer ! good tracking software , anti-fraud is very good , this is key ! if your tracking software is bad at anti-fraud , so I think even you have hundreds of advertiser , you'll lose/lost/bankruptcy soon

2. How should I meet advertisers? : just want tell you , you can't play a big game alone ! if you're serious , then unite with people you trust . Also today we have cell phone , skype ( face to face ) , email ...that will be easy

3. Does anyone have a list of networks that work with smaller networks? : Almost BIG NETWORK accepted and work with smaller network , just contact them directly via phone , face to face ( Aff Summit ,..etc.. ) tell them your plan , details , what is your vertical work ...easy

4. Is not a good question

5. Will networks change their payment terms for other networks? : depend your quality ! not quantity . I don't think when you make 10k for them , with quality traffic/leads , request weekly payment and they deny . My experiences so i'm sure 90% legit network will accept and they not concern about it

6. How does a network gain popularity among marketers? SEO ! , and key is your quality , your support , friendly and clear ! . I want 10 affilites make me 100k/month than 100 affilites make me 10k/month

So , that a basics things i want to tell you , like you currently i'm starting my network and we must prepare carefully , have a good plan .

Thank , and srr about my english xD

ChampGuy said:

Okay people, I have some serious questions about starting my own CPA network.

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ChampGuy, I mean this in all sincerity and with all due respect. If you cannot answer these questions on your own, you are absolutely not ready to start a network.

This industry is riddled with failed networks who've become insolvent. Their main reason for failure is their business practices (or lack thereof). There is a significantly larger list of questions that are much more complex that the ones you asked. The questions you didn't ask, and that I assume you are aware of, are the ones that'll make or break you. Not the list you put in the post.

You have a ton of research to do. You should do that research way before you even consider approaching a software solution vendor.

When starting your network it might be helpful to install content locking software as that will keep you competative with other networks that have it for their affiliates to use. It allows the content of the site to be locked until someone completes the actual CPA offer

cashdash said:

Agreed with Maxsteve. He is the owner of Maxbounty. You should listen to him more. Starting a CPA network isn't just about capital and connections. Start by doing your research.

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I'm sure he'd really appreciate this advice if his last post on this thread wasn't made 4 years ago.