Affiliate.co.za Review

Affiliate.co.za is one of the South African affiliate networks that come up when you google “Affiliate Programs in South Africa”. Judging by the list of clients that they have on their website, I figured that the company probably had some clout in the industry. But that’s as far as any substantive assessment of the company can could go so I decided to research them some more.

The first issue that I found with them was that they do not have much information on their website so even when you are doing research, the only way to find out about them is to try to sign up.

So I sent through my application to them in order to find out what was up. I started this review before submitting my application and from reading their client list, I had high hopes for this company.

The First Red Flag With Affiliate.co.za

I am a firm believer in the dissemination of information when it comes to internet marketing. I think this is called the information age for a reason. You want to be able to research anything AdMarula invest your time and effort into it, or even personal information.

This was the first failing of Affiliate.co.za for me. The company is way too cagey for one that is involved in internet marketing. The two biggest affiliate networks in South Africa right now are OfferForge and AdMarula. These company websites each have a blog where they share information. The information pertains not only to the respective company, but they also publish information about the industry that educates anybody looking to know what digital marketing looks like in South Africa. AdMarula has a particularly neat one where they do interviews with some of their publishers. This gives you the chance to see what other successful publishers and influencers are doing and give you a feeling for how to market locally.

Information Blackout

With Affiliate.co.za there is nothing at all. There is also little to no information found on them online from other sources. The internet is built on information and Affiliate.co.za does not do that well at all. No transparency which is a red flag when you are dealing with online things.

Compare them to AdMarula for example, AdMarula has a blog where they post updates about the campaigns that they run and they do interviews with the influencers and marketers that they have on their platform. They also post regularly on information about performance marketing and

The Affiliate.co.za strategy seems more to me like a gate keeping strategy, which will not be very effective in an industry that is built upon the dissemination of information. This type of practice would be bad for a growing industry in the long run. Network marketing in South Africa is very young and to build the industry at large, inclusion should be more of a thing. Until there is enough knowledge running about, then it makes more sense to be exclusive.

Application

I have tried to apply to them but they rejected the application with the following message:

We regret to inform you that unfortunately, we cannot accept your Affiliate Account application at this stage.

The list of the potential reasoning behind the decision is as follows:

1. Our current Campaigns don’t accept social media traffic

2. The Geographical location/source of traffic doesn’t accommodate our current Campaigns

3. The Channel mentioned upon your registration doesn’t offer adequate traffic volumes to promote our Current campaigns

These reasons make sense if you are talking to a specific campaign, but not across the board for a network and here are the reason.

• 1) According this mail, they do not accept social media traffic. I applied using a website.
• 2) Affiliate.co.za is a South African affiliate network it does not make sense that a South African website with a .co.za domain does has an incompatible geographical source of traffic
• 3) When they say the channel does not offer adequate traffic volumes, I am not sure if they mean the specific website that is applying, or if they mean the type of platform that you are using. Either way, locking out from an entire platform makes no sense to me. I find it a better approach to vet a website for decent quality regardless of maturity and then to gate off as per campaign.

They did say that I can apply to them later if I believe that you feel that the reasons are not applicable to your my account. But it’s not really worth the hassle when other companies. If you can get onto OfferForge and AdMarula I don’t imagine that there will be anything new that you will find on Affiliate.co.za.

Alternatives

I looked into Affiliate.co.za as an additional option. My first go-to when it comes to affiliate networks in South Africa would be AdMarula. If you look around the web, they have the best web presence and all of the big brands that do Affiliate Marketing work through AdMarula. Our closest analog to Amazon in South Africa is Zando, and their affiliate program is managed through AdMarula.

On the merchant side, I would imagine a more limited pool. If when looking at affiliate network and programs, I like to compare with the practices of CJ affiliate and Amazon, respectively. For example, does not have traffic volume requirements.

The reason behind traffic volume limitations is that if a webmaster has too low volumes, they might increase the number of ads displayed to a point that compromises the user experience. And if a user is bombarded by ads, they could possible have a negative association for the brand.

You can join Amazon Associates, the world’s biggest affiliate programme with no visitors at all. The way they manage it is that if you don’t make a sale in 3 months, then you will be removed from the programme and can try again later after you have amassed traffic

The only thing that I could find when looking for information on them is reviews on Hello Peter with a whole lot of complaints. These reviews complain about problems like terrible support and not being paid for clicks generated.

Conclusion: Avoid Affiliate.co.za

Affiliate.co.za looks like bad news from what information I have pieced together. They are very cagey with information and the little amount of information found on them is negative. The safe thing to do is stay away from this network. There are better alternatives available so there is no reason to risk experiencing the problems that this network has being giving people.

If you looking for a good affiliate network with a good track record and is transparent, I recommend that you go with OfferForge instead. All you have to do is sign up to their platform and you will immediately get access to their portal and be able to start promoting offers that you qualify for immediately..