Q: I am going to start an affiliate program as a merchant and have been looking at MyAP, CJ, and my soon to be shopping cart affiliate software from Miva. My question – why pay $999 to MyAP or more to CJ when Miva does it for free? Do potential affiliates look at the monitoring software and disregard programs because they aren’t MyAP or CJ?
A: On the surface, it may seem like Miva makes sense. But when you dig deeper, you’ll find that the Miva Merchant affiliate technology is terribly lacking.
When you ask why pay MyAP or CJ when Miva does it for free, the operative word there is “it.” Basically, the list of things Miva doesn’t do (in comparison to MyAP or CJ) is a lot longer than the list of things it does offer (very basic tracking and reporting).
So MyAP and CJ offer a robust package – they truly do “it.” Miva is sub-“it”. Not to belabor the point, but Miva is essentially a Yugo at the Indy 500 of affiliate solution providers.
Aside from the technical limitations, using Miva to power your affiliate program implies that you are not willing to invest in your affiliate program.
There are other options that won’t break the bank:
- Affiliate Clicks (MyAP lite)
- DirectTrack
- Groundbreak.com Ultimate Affiliate
- shareasale.com
As far as affiliates disregarding affiliate programs that don’t use certain technologies, you will definitely find it a challenge to recruit affiliates if you are using a home grown, little known, or bare bones technology.