Case Study: Starting a CPA Network w/ HasOffers
Not to long ago I started playing around with the idea of starting my own network. I wasn’t sure which affiliate platform to go with off the bat so got demos of linktrust, direct track, and hitpath. I had my likes and dislikes of each platform, but the biggest thing that kind of sucked was the way they priced things. You are basically looking at something like 5-10 grand in setup fees, then anywhere from 1-3 grand a month in fees. I wanted to be able to test starting a network, without dumping out 10-15 grand or whatever on setup and monthly fees just to see if it was my thing.
Around the same time that I was getting demos from all these companies, about ready to go ahead and sign a contract on the platform, a new affiliate tracking platform hit the market. The platform was called hasoffers. I signed up right away and started testing things out. Since I have seen a lot of hype lately about hasoffers, I thought I would add in what I could to the matter since I have actually been USING the hasoffers platform for awhile now.
I wasn’t sure what to expect off the bat, or if I should even be trying out such a low cost solution. I seem to place unreliable and low cost in the same category. After doing a bit more research on the matter, I found out that the technology that hasoffers uses for affiliate tracking is supposed to be over twice as fast as all the competitors. Because it is twice as fast and far more efficient, it takes far less hardware and computer power to process everything. THIS is why the platform is free/so low cost.
Once I got my account rolling I picked up 2 domains, my networks domain and my networks’ tracking domain. A dns change and couple clicks later and everything was rolling fine with my network domain pointing right to my network hosted on hasoffers’ hardware.
Next step was setting up the basics of the script. You can change the way the script looks to customize your network, however it is pretty limited to what you can change. You can basically change the color scheme, add your own custom header, add a custom footer and insert javascript (for tracking/analytics reasons). You can also setup your terms and conditions and create any and all additional questions to have your affiliates answer when they are signing up.
Next step is to get some offers loaded into the network. For most people their options would be to start/have their own offer, broker offers, or go direct through the advertiser. For my testing phase I chose to put up a couple of my own offers I have and to broker some offers from other sources that I have built relationships with. Setting up the actual offers was simple, it consisted of creating an advertisers account for the offer/offers and then creating the offer. When you are creating the offer in the network there are many nice options such as:
- Lead caps
- Cookie lifespan
- Using custom variables
- Geo redirection (You can set which countries the offer is available to and forward countries to a different offer.)
- Target browsers (You can set which browsers the offer is available to and forward other browsers to a different offer.)
Now that I have the network setup and some offers loaded, I needed some affiliates (or myself) to push the offers. Since I buy traffic myself, I ran internal traffic to the offers and also brought on a couple of close friends who do some good volume to help me test everything out. One benefit of this platform that I found out about right off the bat was its ease of tracking. All of the affiliates were able to add there own pixels to whichever offer needed at any point. There pixel management portion of the platform works really well and is all automatic, not requiring affiliate managers to waste there time adding an removing pixels for people.
Once you do all of that, you are pretty much good to go! There is extensive reporting for the network, the advertiser, and the affiliate. The reporting seems to be fast, accurate and easy to use.
Last of all is paying your affiliates! Hasoffers has designed their platform to help you with this task by showing account balances and payments due, along with managing invoices and other things.
So far, starting a network for me has been a really easy and fun experience. Hasoffers has made this much easier by allowing me to test everything out using their hasoffers platform. If you are already doing good volume, have good relationships with some advertisers or networks, and know even a few good affiliates that will drive traffic to your offers, then you might as well think about starting your own network!
One thing I would like to note… if you are thinking about trying out hasoffers, I would recommend signing up right away. When hasoffers first came out, I signed up right away to test them out and was fortunate I did so. When I signed up, hasoffers was free up to 1 million clicks a month. Some time in the last couple months, they have now changed their free plan to only include up to 250,000 clicks a month. However, because I was signed up under an old account, I was grandfathered in and was able to keep the old 1 million clicks per month limit. Because of this, I recommend signing up as soon as possible so that if another change goes through minimizing what the free account includes you will be grandfathered in!
As of this posting, hasoffers offers the free account up to 250,000 clicks, a professional account at $99/month which is good up to 500,000 clicks, and a enterprise account at $799.month with unlimited click volume.
If you have tried or are trying hasoffers, let me know what you think about it. If you simply have a question regarding the platform or starting a network in general, ask away, and I will try my best to answer your questions!
Have any questions? Let me know on the forums and I will answer you personally!
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My first hesitation on even using hasoffers is that their business model doesn’t work. It’s not possible for them to be delivering a high-availability, redundant solution at that cost (free to $99/mo). Because of that extremely low cost, I have to assume that they are sacrificing something somewhere, whether it be redudancy, bandwidth, data backup, etc. Other people are agreeing with this and jumping to a more sinister conclusion that hasoffers is using the extremely cheap cost to lure marketers into using the system and mining their data for keywords, campaigns, etc.
@audax I do understand your concern. I read threads at wickedfire and talked to others who also feel and felt the same way as you.
I always try to think back to the tracking202 guys. They were put in the same kind of boat sort of…they were offering a free service and everyone was weary of them. I heard many accusations and theories as to why they were doing it, most being that they were going to be stealing keywords and campaigns of affiliates. As we all know, they ended up being a solid company and really producing some value for the community.
Since many of the things I hear aren’t true, that is why I decided to test out the hasoffers platform for myself, and if things start to seem fishy or there are any facts revealed proving that hasoffers is crooked, then I will cease everything with them and move on over to linktrust or hitpath or something. For now though, I will continue to test things out on a smaller scale to see how everything continues to go.
Thanks for the solid comment man, I appreciate your insight into the matter!
I understand your comparison with T202 but that product evolved into a paid product which further illustrates my points. The software to run a network is more complex than T202 needs to be, yet hasoffers is below the T202 pricing for the same click-thru rate. With hasoffers, 500k clicks is only $99, yet T202Pro is $249.
Hasoffers simply can’t be providing a solid, reliable service at that price, and for that reason alone I can’t trust it with such critical data.
Correction: Tracking202 Pro at 500k clicks per month is $2,249.95 (excluding API costs).
I was in roughly the same boat when I started my network, and I did the same thing with testing out HasOffers. Long story short, they have been great to work with and I haven’t had any issues whatsoever with tracking or things going down. It tracks better than DT does, and right on par with LinkTrust. I agree with you Trevor, if HasOffers or Adapp Solutions does anything shady to give me a reason to switch, I will, but until then there is no reason to jump ship from a product that does what I need it to do at such a low cost.
I’m currently using Hasoffers tracking system for AwigaMedia and I have to say they have been great to work with. Response time for problems I have had is amazing, tracking is great. I Would also leave Hasoffers if they did anything shady, like stated in the above comments but as of now they didn’t do anything except help out with everything so HasOffers tracking 2 thumbs up
Hi Trevor!
For a newbie, I think that this is a great place to start. I will be looking into this option and to also implement it as well. Thanks A Million!
Beware of this site and company, they are a complete scam. Consider the system a pyramid scheme at best. They do not keep accurate statistics, they alter the numbers in order to con their customers. I am posting this to warn you before you get ripped off too.
@Must Remain Anonymous
What kind of BS comment is that?
Care to back up your claims with some proof?
Has anyone here had a successful experience at building their own CPA\Affiliate Network and if so at what level? What particular tools have been employed for this?
Prompt replies and answers greatly appreciated.
jspike
Yeah … I want to know the same….
I am interested in creating an affiliate network too…
I have had plenty of success with building my own Network. The thing is, I am not looking for some huge public CPA network. I am looking for taking offers I have exceptional payouts at and levereging them to some GOOD private affiliates and friends that I know PERSONALLY. I also use the hasoffers platform for when I do local lead gen so that the companies have an interface to work with and so I can distribute these offers to my private affiliate base.
The success of the network is in YOUR hands not the hasoffers script…
As for particular tools….I’m not clear on what you mean. I use the hasoffers script as I was grandfathered in to their PRO plan and it is working out great for me. The only other portion is you getting offers and affiliates. You can either broker offers or go direct by contacting advertisers yourself. For affiliates, You have to figure out a way to get them…but like I said, both of these are completely in your hands.
Hi Trevor,
I would like to know how your affiliate network is doing currently with hasoffers. I’m in the process of starting up a local one just for my country, and see how it does.
Many startups make things free to get people to try things out and once they get traction, they charge fees which is the case with HasOffers now. I am also comparing to cj.com and Google Affiliate Network because I have a bigger budget. Any feedback?
Also, without any proof from the anonymous naysayer above, it’s hard for me to take that comment seriously.
I AM STILL CONFUSED.HASOFFERS IS SCAM OR NOT
No, hasoffers is not a scam.
Hi. I have started a network with hasoffers – affiliateaces.hasoffers.com
Just started a couple of days ago and I am a complete newbie at this. I’m struggling with getting affiliates, does anyone have any tips?
Thanks
how much do you make from each affiliate you get to market offers on your CPA network?
do affiliates mind you make them market as sub affiliates under you?
is this the way any CPA network in the world work?
signup for merchant then make affiliates signup under them?
My CPA network http://www.cpadome.com is use hasoffers and their platform is very good. Try them out you will not be sorry!!
How is your experience now with has offers still good?
I see its not free anymore the ideal account would be 500 offers and 10 users not the other way around
Trevor, how is your zero investment HasOffers network performing right now? How about the other zero investment networks mentioned in the comments above?
Answer – all of them are out of business because not a single legit affiliate trusts a HasOffers network.
HasOffers has diluted this industry to the point of no return. Its a shame.
“Industry Veteran” aka Digital River aka owner of Direct Track,
Out of your entire paragraph there is not one valid claim, lets break it down sentence by sentence.
You: Trevor, how is your zero investment HasOffers network performing right now?
Me: I don’t have a zero investment HasOffers network, nor have I ever. I do though broker out some offers to close friends and have used it with in-house projects. This post is well over 2 years old, and was a case study, but I do still use HasOffers and still have no complaints for what I use it for.
You: How about the other zero investment networks mentioned in the comments above?
Me: I’m not sure, go ask them, the post isn’t about them its about a piece of software. I can say I have worked with a few different companies using HasOffers and I had no issues whatsoever. It is quite easy to know who is reputable and who is not. Do business with who you trust, it’s that easy.
You: Answer – all of them are out of business because not a single legit affiliate trusts a HasOffers network.
Me: Wrong & wrong. They are not all out of business and I know many affiliates who trust a HasOffers network. Like I said before, it’s not about the software they use but the people running the business. Use your brain while doing business, ask for referrals, do some research. If you don’t do that, you are asking to get ripped off.
You: HasOffers has diluted this industry to the point of no return. Its a shame.
Me: One somewhat valid comment but still wrong. I agree the industry has been diluted, but Hasoffers did not dilute this industry. Hasoffers created a product that is as much or more feature packed as anything else out there, but at a far lower price. Thats it. The lower prices from the competition create an easier barrier of entry for people to do what they want to do.
Oh, and next time your going to come to my blog and bash people don’t do it “anonymously” because you suck at it.
Author : Industry Veteran (IP: 208.79.252.150 , dc2-nat-pittsburgh.digitalriver.com)
E-mail : [email protected]
URL : http://www.na.com
Whois : http://whois.arin.net/rest/ip/208.79.252.150
Notice the IP and hostname. You are from a Digital River ip/hostname. Digital River owns Direct Track which is a competitor of HasOffers for anyone who may not know.
Proof: Notice the big Digital River logo at http://www.directtrack.com.