Firstly, thanks for the Podcast, they’re very informative.

Secondly, apologies for the lengthy nature of this question, but you’ll soon realise I’m New to this.

I listened to Merchant ABCs#3 and I have a question, but first, I’ll explain a little about what I’m doing.

I’m having a site built to enable Holidaymakers to rent Holiday/Vacation homes – Long/Short Term. This is the main objective of my site.

However, I’m also building TWO other pages on the Site.
1. Is to advertise to potential clients that they can come and not only rent a property for their Holiday, but they can also buy “All they need” for their holiday, from Suit Cases, clothes, flip flops etc. Essentially, all items (and possibly more) that someone would need when they go on their hols.

2. A Voucher Page, so they can get discounts of some of those items above, or indeed, if they are perusing, they may see a non related holiday item, but something they’ve found a Voucher for, and can thus get a discount.

So question is, you’ve mentioned Blue/Red widgets etc, and the premise of your conversation was that the Affiliate (quite rightly) wants to be paid, if a person they sent buys something. I get that, and completely understand and agree.

However, why can the affiliate NOT get paid if I sell “Other products” acting as an affiliate?

I.e. If I CANNOT be an affiliate AND a Merchant?

This is my thought,
1. An Affiliate sends Person A comes to my site and this person rents a Holiday Home, for which the affiliate gets a commission.
2. Person A then sees the other links (i.e. in the Menu Bar) to my Shopping Site. Person A clicks on the link, and it opens the page (doesn’t take them to a New site). Person A then finds some clothes they like (for which I’m an affiliate), they click on the link, which THEN takes them to say Hugo Boss, and they buy those clothes.
Now I’m a Merchant and AND Affiliate on the same Network. Can they Network NOT set this up, so that I can split the affiliate commission, with the affiliate that sent Person A to my site?

3. Slightly off topic, but clearly I need an OPM. Do you have a view as to what budget (either consultancy or long term, say very rough monthly cost), I should be considering?

Many Thanks in advance
Daren