Pharmacy Direct Company, NZ, is an online New Zealand e-business. Since 1997, it has been delivery quality products to customers all over the world from its New Zealand depot in Northcote, Auckland.

Pharmacy Direct is an [...]]]> Tried another friend this time to write a guest review about Pharmacy Direct. Here’s what he came up with:

Pharmacy Direct Company, NZ, is an online New Zealand e-business. Since 1997, it has been delivery quality products to customers all over the world from its New Zealand depot in Northcote, Auckland.

Pharmacy Direct is an online pharmacy but much more than that. Besides prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs, Pharmacy Direct also supplies millions of satisfied customers which such items as: health and beauty aids, weight loss products, sexual health products, fragrances, contact lens, baby and childcare products, and natural products.

Since its inception in the late 1990’s it has been the company vision of PharmacyDirect to deliver to its e-customers a wide range of health and beauty products of the highest quality in New Zealand and the most appealing prices in the country. Judging from its many returning clients, PharmacyDirect has made good on its promise of inexpensive, reliable service and outstanding customer service.

Customers of Pharmacy Direct appreciate the fact that they do not need to shop at retail stores or price compare. Their drugs, health and beauty items are delivered efficiently to their door at prices that cannot be beat in line with PharmacyDirect’s “best price guarantee”. In addition to
Prices guaranteed to be the lowest anywhere, Pharmacy Direct also offers its Rewards on everything excluding prescription. Trained, knowledgeable sales representatives are only too happy to answer questions regarding PharmacyDirect’s over-the-counter health and beauty products. So whether your condition is short or long term and whether it is an allergy or an age spot, hay fever or a hair condition, PharmacyDirect’s friendly staff will answer your questions about any condition from asthma to heart disease. Many clients rely on PharmacyDirect Company’s expertise whether they are at home, at work, on the road or on an around-the-world cruise. You are never more than a click or a phone call away from PharmacyDirect’s experienced staff.If you have any questions or concerns please contact our customer service team on customerservice@pharmacydirect.co.nz or phone our customer services team, toll free 0800 PHARMACY (0800 742 762).

PharmacyDirect’s Direct Affiliate Program has won high marks from New Zealand’s Affiliate Program Review. By linking your individual, company or organization website to PharmacyDirect’s Affiliate Program, you can earn commission every time a sale is made by clicking through your website. This affiliate marketing opportunity is an excellent way for individuals to earn from a secondary income or for schools, hospitals and other organizations to fund raise. Here’s how it works. Once you have linked the website of your company, organization or your personal website to PharmacyDirect’s Affiliate Program, you will start to earn five percent for every sale clicked through your website. Does this sound too good to be true? Well, it’s for real! All you need to do is choose banners, logos, text from PharmacyDirect’s Affiliate Program. You may also add endorsements of PharmacyDirect’s products and/or services to increase sales appeal. Then, you sit back and watch sales come in!
To register your individual business or organization website, simply click on the New Application link, and submit your application. Pharmacy Direct staff will review your application for affiliation and provide details about how to become an affiliate if your website is accepted. Once you become an affiliate, you can check on commission payment information and affiliate updates by logging in to the Pharmacy Direct website.
Affiliate marketing has become big business not only for New Zealand companies but throughout the world. The more business and Internet savvy a webmaster is, the more likely his website will generate affiliate commission revenue. That’s why companies like PharmacyDirect have opted to create their own Affiliate Programs. As noted in New Zealand’s Affiliate Program Review, Pharmacy Direct Affiliate Program is easy to link and use and provides colorful banners, logos and interesting text which website owners may access to enhance their website affiliate marketing.

Let me know if you find anything in there that isn’t correct or if you have direct experience with their affiliate program.

Hopefully the forum poster doesn’t mind me answering the question regarding Affiliate Merchants here;

I just joined the affiliate program forum a [...]]]> There was a simple but often overlooked question in our Affiliate Forum over the last week that I thought deserved a post to help others out with their searching as well.

Hopefully the forum poster doesn’t mind me answering the question regarding Affiliate Merchants here;

I just joined the affiliate program forum a couple of days ago and I am completely new to this whole business. I am very interested and would be very grateful for any help regarding this concept. I am in the process of developing a web site related to the Travel sector in NZ. (Accomodation, Tours, Attractions, Rentals etc.).
Please forgive my ignorance in all this (as evident in the next couple of questions), but there is a saying in Spanish which translates to : “It is better to be really red with embarrassment only once than to be bright pink a hundred times”.

I know which merchants I would like to have an affiliate relationship with, (their seriousness, reliability, reputation, solid business practice etc.) but when I go to their web page I don’t find any link to affiliate programs. Does this automatically mean that they don’t have one? Or there is one but it’s not advertised and one must contact them personally? If I want to include a link on my site about “campervan rentals” I can understand if “Joe’s Rent-a Dent Camper Hire” doesn’t have an affiliate program but the major players?

Is there a site which gives me a list of affiliate programs in my particular field? Have contacted NZ Tourism but no joy there so far. As I mentioned before, very grateful for any sort of assistance.

Most websites or businesses that have an affiliate program will have an “Affiliate Program” link somewhere on their homepage. As it sounds like you’ve done, that’s the first place to look.

If they don’t have that link but you’re sure they a program, your next option is to do a search on the affiliate programs that have joined a few of the different networks that provide for the NZ affiliate market.

The obvious examples are clixgalore.co.nz, commissionmonster.co.nz and dgmpro.com. You could also have a look at the US networks like CJ.com which often have the larger international brands and may allow promotion to the New Zealand market. There are other networks that are limited regarding which affiliates can join as well e.g. tpn.co.nz.

Last option is to send the branded website you’re looking to promote an email through their standard contact form although this can have varying responses. Where you can, try and email a marketing contact at the branded site as often a general support team will not know what an affiliate program is…

Good luck finding the affiliate program you’re looking for!

While retailers have increased levels of shoppers at their doors over the Christmas and Holiday Season, web traffic is just [...]]]> I’ve been a little light in posting and chatting in the forum around here for the last month and that’s mainly because of this time of the year being the busy season online in NZ.

While retailers have increased levels of shoppers at their doors over the Christmas and Holiday Season, web traffic is just as cyclical across the year just at different points.

Generally it’s the cold winter months, where people are locked away in their living rooms with the TV blaring away in the background (with the Olympics on at the moment of course) that are the peak periods for many online sites in NZ.

The Summer holiday season is when the average reader is out and about at BBQ’s, the beach or shopping down at the local mall.

With this in mind it’s good to prepare for the busy season you’re going to have by making sure your website’s already been through a development cycle as you come into the winter months. This way, while you’re dealing with the traffic increase you’re not also trying to re-launch your design!

Kotitihaere, a poster in our forums, has come up with some brilliant feedback to both affiliates [...]]]> One of the great things about working online from New Zealand is that we’re already in a local community that’s small and isolated enough from the rest of the world that we’re usually happy to help each other out.

Kotitihaere, a poster in our forums, has come up with some brilliant feedback to both affiliates and affiliate managers in what they, as an experienced affiliate, are looking for when searching around the web trying to find the right affiliate program to promote.

I like the start;

Nothing is more annoying than finding a site in a search engine that has an affiliate program then finding the link to it is a mission in searching!

You can read more on their Guideline for Good Affiliate Programs to sign up to.

Great feedback…

Where to find NZ Affliates

As a merchant you need to make it very easy for NZ [...]]]> The second in a series of four articles on New Zealand affiliate marketing from a merchant perspective by Antony Ellis (Affiliate Manager for NZ Fine Prints, New Zealand’s largest retailer of art prints and posters; www.prints.co.nz.)

Where to find NZ Affliates

As a merchant you need to make it very easy for NZ websites looking for affiliate programs to both find and sign up to your program. You should also reach out pro-actively to sign-up affiliates who don’t know about your program yet.

Immediate Steps:

Your first step should be to promote your affiliate program to your website’s visitors. Do it today. Place a link to a page describing the benefits of your affiliate program on your main navigation. Add a sign up button that works. Measure the effectiveness of your sign up page as a key conversion goal.

Next use your precious email list of customers – very cautiously (but see big exception below). Don’t erode the magic of your product in your customers’ minds by making your business sound like a multi-level marketing scheme! Add a subtle link to your affiliate program information page to your email newsletters (e.g. in the footer). Don’t promote your affiliate program brashly to existing customers – nobody likes the suggestion that you may have margin to spare…

The big exception to a softly, softly approach to promotion of your affiliate program to your email list is if your business wholesales products or services to other New Zealand business’ for resale. Promote your affiliate program in your emails to your wholesale customers prominently. This is a fantastic opportunity to extend your business relationship online. Be generous! Offer your wholesale customers the same percentage they would get if they purchased product or your services wholesale and added their markup. Because they will be getting traffic from customers who are looking for products in a similar industry to yours you should find that traffic from wholesale customers’ websites converts very well.

Then Go Forth and Actively Promote:

Affiliate Networks for New Zealand Websites
You will be tempted to promote your affiliate program through an affiliate network (of which there are thousands). However with steep non-refundable sign up fees (or the requirement for a large deposit to be used for as yet unproven commission payments in the future required upfront) and/or combined with commissions on top of what gets paid to the affiliates you can quickly chew through your budget without being able to test the effectiveness of the network first. Be especially aware that because 99% of the affiliates signed up to most affiliate networks are not New Zealand sites they aren’t going to be worth signing up to anyway (who is going to bother promoting your Matariki tablecloth range on their American website?). The exception may be Australian based ClixGalore which could be worth checking out as it has quite a few NZ publishers. (Please post a comment below if you know about a New Zealand affiliate network working with NZ based merchants and publishers or if you have had a good experience with a particular affiliate network promoting your New Zealand store.)

My Favourite Strategy for Finding New Zealand Affiliates for your Merchant Program
By far the most successful long term strategy to find profitable New Zealand affiliates is to research your market looking for websites that will deliver pre-qualified traffic (customers looking for what you offer). Budget at least ten hours to do this initially and a few hours a month long term (you will learn a lot about your market at the same time!). You need to find websites that attract your kind of visitors in good volume because they will typically need to send dozens of visitors to your site for each sale. If websites are not getting high levels of traffic they won’t deliver the volume of clickthroughs you need to make a conversion – leading to disappointment for both merchant and affiliate.

Start searching for websites in your industry, widen your search to related industries, then widen your search to general interest sites with good quality New Zealand content and websites that already participate in New Zealand affiliate programs.

Initially find websites in your industry that complement rather than compete directly your product range (you sell bookcases, they sell books) – direct competitors make lousy prospects. Widen your search to related industries (home decorating sites for your bookcase store). Then look for general interest sites that accept advertising (try searching their site for a ratecard), they may be happy to offer you an advertising deal on a pay per sale basis. An excellent pool of potential affiliates are sites with links to other merchants’ affiliate programs. Find out who is linking to other New Zealand retailers who have affiliate programs using Google’s link tool – these site-owners just need to be convinced about the saleability of your product or service as they know the benefits of New Zealand affiliate programs already! One NZ online retailer helpfully publishes a full list of their current affiliates!

Tread carefully with non-New Zealand sites (see previous article) as you don’t want signs for your business hanging in a dodgy part of town. They can also be a hassle to pay – consider using Paypal or post them a cheque as international bank transfer is expensive.

How to contact potential affiliates and what to say:

Contact by phone first to see if they are interested then send an email giving details – or send one polite email if they don’t list a contact other than an online form. Be prepared to share your statistics. For example know your conversion rate and average sale amount and use this information to build trust. Do all the work for your potential affiliates if your program needs forms completed – so all they have to do is add the code to their site to get started. Have some templates of successful ads and product links showing how to link to your site that they can copy. The ease with which a website owner can add links to your site is a very important factor in whether the affiliate relationship will get off the ground.

Once they have signed up:
Each new affiliate is a special relationship with a real person. Check that the links they are adding are working correctly. Check the statistics are recording what they should (eg clickthroughs). Encourage links to the most popular products so the new affiliate gets some sales as soon as possible to build your reputation. Their screen space is valuable and they want to promote only the most profitable links. Celebrate with them when the first sale is made. Create an email list of affiliates and help them with seasonal ads and news of new or hot-selling products.

In my next article I will discuss the key factors in a successful affiliate-merchant relationship from a merchant’s perspective.

I think Antony has really hit the nail on the head in his article where he says;

…know your conversion rate and average sale amount and use this information to build trust…

There’s nothing better than being contacted by an affiliate manager who can tell you their direct conversions therefore giving you the estimated value for the traffic you’re going to send their way.

If all of the affiliate managers understood the affiliate world as well as Antony the industry would be a thriving one in NZ!

So far we’ve had some interesting posts from people looking for for the best affiliate networks, reviews on NZ programs that have worked well for some local affiliates and program managers looking for feedback on launching their [...]]]> Thanks to everyone for their support as we’re building a community forum here at AffiliatePrograms.co.nz.

So far we’ve had some interesting posts from people looking for for the best affiliate networks, reviews on NZ programs that have worked well for some local affiliates and program managers looking for feedback on launching their new program.

It’ll take us a while to get the community up and running but with a bit of input, we’ll end up with a strong voice for bringing affiliate issues to the forefront of the people managing the programs locally as well as joining managers with affiliates who are looking for the right product to publish.

Sound familiar?

This is a reason why some affiliates prefer to [...]]]> If you’ve been an affiliate for a while or are an affiliate on any of the major networks, you can start to feel like you have username or account number stamped in your forehead because that’s all your affiliate manager ever actually considers you.

Sound familiar?

This is a reason why some affiliates prefer to work with smaller programs only. It’s not the answer to the best ROI (return on investment) you can get from your traffic but over the long-term this can be a way to help you stay sane and connected with real people.

Smaller affiliate programs are usually run by the main marketing people for the team and (assuming they know anything about affiliate marketing) this gives them the opportunity to get to know the affiliate a little better and build a bit more of a relationship.

If you manage to find a program like this, stick with it!

You’ll find that having that personal contact with the affiliate manager is gold when there’s something you need sorted out that’s specific to your website or business. Although it’s not always possible, nothing beats meeting and affiliate manager face-to-face. They then understand where you’re coming from and potential conflicts (where you both lose out because something wasn’t dealt with well) are reduced or even avoided completely.

I haven’t heard of any form of affiliate marketing meetings going on in New Zealand but if anyone else has let me know.

I was talking to [...]]]> As businesses progress through their usual cycle, many end up going under or need to change their business model and invariably the affiliate is the one left in the lurch when the contract terms they agreed to at the start of the relationship with the program turn into something completely different.

I was talking to a website owner recently and his argument for not launching an affiliate program was that a potential purchaser would not be interested (or at least would frown on) contracts that exist with publishers (the affiliates) that are based on a lifetime revenue model.

Most affiliates who have been around the block before have had a relationship with an affiliate program cut off early due to some form of sale, merger or change in management where the affiliate program is no longer seen as a good idea and the clause in their agreement which usually says something like “we can do what we want to these contract terms” gets used and the affiliate looses all of the hard-earned and built “lifetime revenue”.

It would be great to say that there is an easy answer to this issue for the affiliate but there just isn’t. Trust is the single most important thing in an affiliate relationship as it’s the only thing that’s keeping the affiliate promoting the brand. When this trust is broken for business reasons there’s little re-dress.

The best an affiliate can do is to make sure they are not putting all their eggs in one basket so that their entire revenue stream is not dependent on one particular affiliate program. Letting other affiliates know through forums and posting around the web about their experience and what has happened is a positive thing for the community as well.

If you have some experience you’d like to share about an NZ affiliate program feel free to post it in the comments here.