There are some advantages of outsourcing your affiliate program to a specialist provider instead of running it yourself. These hosted systems often have more expertise in managing the software, they will ensure the software is regularly updated with new versions and may have better back up proceedures.

However what you need to consider however with a hosted referral service, is the following...

• How relevant is their affiliate base to your product or service?
• Is the affiliate service going to be around as long as your business?
• Are their affiliates going to promote your program above the hundreds of other affiliate programs they are offered?
• Do you need the extra link popularity factor from having your own domain in your referral links?

If you don't have the time to manage the affiliate program yourself, then a 3rd party might be the best choice.

Good 3rd party Affiliate software

1. Clickbank
2. LinkShare
3. TradeDoubler

Clickbank

Clickbank is the answer if you don't have your own merchant account and ordering pages setup. - more info here.

LinkShare Referral Program

Linkshare provides a good affiliate program software solution if you want to outsource the service however monthly fees may be higher.

Tradedoubler Referral Program

TradeDoubler is a global performance-based digital marketing company offering a range of products and services including Affiliate management.

Referral software scripts

Referral software scripts