Q: I am opening a website geared to people in tough financial situations. In part, it will feature content about living on a budget, managing debt, etc. Proceeds generated will go to charitable funds and distributions. As just part of the website, I am interested in opening an online store. In addition to affiliate programs, I would like to feature promotional and discount codes. How do I arrange with the stores to have codes that are exclusive to our site? In other words, these codes should not be the same codes that one sees on all the other discount codes sites. If possible, I would like to arrange for the discounts to be even steeper than those on other sites. If that can’t be done, how do I arrange to get codes from other sites and have the funds go to my account?
A: The opportunity is out there for affiliates to get unique coupon codes from a merchant. However, they are likely going to want to see a big volume of leads or sales from you before granting your request for a coupon code exclusive to your site.
It may sound like a Catch 22, but rewards like a unique coupon code are commonly reserved for affiliates that have already performed for a given affiliate program.
You can certainly ask all of the affiliate managers, but I think you’ll have a much better response if you make those requests after logging in a couple or three strong months of performance with their affiliate programs.