Beckersurf.com, the largest surf/California lifestyle e-commerce store on the web on Affiliate Management by ForgeBusiness

From the desk of Mark Marovich, manager of Beckersurf.com

“Hey Mark, Keith is going back to school, you’re the new ‘affiliate guy’” - and so it came to be, Beckersurf.com’s manager, part time customer service agent, part time shipper, part time product packer, part time fraud analyzer, and part time logistics manager became Beckersurf.com’s part time “affiliate” guy. Yep, that’s a lot of “part time” duties but hey, we were having fun, orders were increasing at a rapid pace, and, come on, how hard can this affiliate business be anyways, I mean, if Keith was doing it!

Did I know the affiliate world or even know our own program? Not really, but what did I know about any of this online stuff a couple years back? With this high level of blissful ignorance I cracked opened the virtual CJ 101 textbook and introduced myself to our existing partners, quickly realizing the difference between not knowing anything about the affiliate world and not knowing ANYTHING about the affiliate world!

“I thought you guys had abandoned your program? Nice to meet you Mark, do you have any new ______(incentives, banners, promotions)? Is your payout structure going to remain the same? What about a tiered platform? Can I get on your CJ newsletter list?” The questions kept pouring in, then all the requests to join from a seemingly random assortment of affiliates (who were these people, there are thousands of them?!)….EPC, CR, Advanced Link, Advertiser Smart Zone, Coupons, AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

It quickly became obvious that I/we were over our heads with the limited time that could be afforded to our affiliates considering our size and growth. Shortly thereafter we were approached by our knights in shinning affiliate armor, Forge Business, just in time to re-resurrect an affiliate program on life support.

Wary of the sales pitches’ norm to any online operation, I can’t say that we had to restrain ourselves from immediately signing a partnership agreement with Forge, but we were intrigued and genuinely liked these guys. We are not a company that throws $’s at every marketing opportunity and approach each marketing/advertising avenue with a high level of skepticism. Ferdie and Reshall did not give us the hard sell, rather they explained to us the world that they and all the crew at Forge are deeply knowledgeable and active in, leading us to realize what we were leaving on the plate by not being proactive with our affiliate program.

With the go ahead from ownership (”this better work!”) and a hop of faith, we partnered with Forge Business in 2006 and the partnership began to pay off almost immediately. After some “getting to know you” sessions, validating one of Forge’s mottos that you must know your clients to succeed, our EPC, ratings within our categories, and sales started to move up dramatically and haven’t stopped. We are now at the point whereby we rest easy knowing this large segment of total sales is being handled professionally and competently. But there is no satisfaction with the Forge team for what’s been done, as all eyes are trained forward.

Could we have done this on our own? Not a chance without bringing someone in-house that has the knowledge necessary to run a profitable affiliate program…but at what cost? With the payment structure Forge provides (let alone the incentive to succeed that might not be there with an employee), we are assured that we are receiving a high rate of return, higher than adding a highly qualified (and highly compensated) affiliate staff member.

Considering where we were, where we are, and where we expect to be we have full faith that we made the right move by partnering with Forge Business and look forward, without hesitation, to our future affiliate endeavors.

Beckersurf.com is the on-line arm of the Southern California based retail operation Becker Surfboards Inc. Started in 1998, Beckersurf.com is the largest surf/California lifestyle e-commerce store on the web.