In the last few months a number of new networks have launched in the UK. The latest is Cleverat, who officially launched today with a number of press release articles appearing on blogs and Affiliates4U.

Cleverat join a group of recent newbie networks, including Profitistic, WASP and ePurplemedia (who don’t seem to have any merchants) and another newboy Trienta, who were launched very quietly via A4U by Matt Lovett of Only Option Media Ltd.

So, are they any good? I tend not to judge a network on how quick someone emails me or the names of the people behind it. Getting links is fairly simple as well and I’m not too fussed on fancy graphs and reporting. As long as I can find what I want, see basic stats and get paid on time then that’s usually a good start!

So what will make me want to work with these networks? Especially if we assume they’re all more than capable of basic reporting, it’s easy to get links and they’re keen to make sure they pay me on time?

Answer: exclusive programs (and then one’s I can generate revenue with).

What does put me off a network, especially in terms of deciding whether I want to make an effort using any of their programs, is when they’re just showing loads of Freerewardcenter or MyFreePrize type programs. Mainly because these programs are run by Primeq directly and affiliates can earn £1 as opposed to 80p elsewhere! In my opinion this doesn’t help affiliates, it just creates more barriers and denies an affiliate the true value of their leads. Perhaps affiliates are unaware of this?

Just a side note here to add that I’m not the biggest fan of co-registration programs, but there’s obviously money in it and recently Clash Media won a £2million VC award to further their business.

Back to affiliate networks! Another things that also puts me off is when the same old affiliate program names show up! I know it’s recommended that merchants select two networks to work with – and let’s face it some even find that a tough cookie to master in terms of tracking – so how can some manage their program effectively on every single network?

When you start removing the cross over merchants, especially those in the co-reg sector, on some of these new networks and then take off their own inhouse programs – the reality is, at least for this affiliate, there’s little left on the table to get seriously interested in. And that’s the main problem!

So that leaves a few questions to ponder!

Are there enough affiliates for each of these networks to run successfully?

Are there any opportunities for unique and good quality programs left – and if yes why would they choose a new network vs an established giant?

Can a new network launch without the same programs as every other new network?

Admittedly it’s early days for some of these networks, and there’s no doubting that one or two have potential. WASP for example have a few quality merchants and differentiate themselves from the rest of the newbie networks in that they’re not getting involved in the co-reg arena and Cleverat do have ex-Tradedoubler man Ryan Vaughan, who’s persuasion was the main reason why we gave them a try.

However, a new network launching is just not exciting any more, at least not for this old-timer! It doesn’t matter how wonderful the back end team is, or how great a name the network brand is, or how many offices they have worldwide… if it’s just a “same old same old” I can’t see how that will attract affiliates and get them pushing the merchants.

Only time will tell whether they can truly establish themselves amongst the other more well known networks, or whether Tradedoubler, Buy.at and others decide to create their own second network aimed at simply competing in the space with the same programs offered by the newbie networks.

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