My experience with the SEDO affiliate program
I thought I’d report my experiences with the SEDO affiliate program. I have been a SEDO affiliate for about 2 years. The great thing, or that’s what I thought, about their program is that the referred accounts will always have my affiliate stamp on them, unlike many other programs where you only earn a commission for, say, from the first year of the referred accounts activities.
So far, almost 700 new accounts have been registered at SEDO through my affiliate links.
So far so good, but the bad news is, that it seems that nobody hardly ever buys or sells anything at SEDO. The average month results in less than 10 total transactions from which I get any kind of commission. These consist of a few very low quality (low price) domain sales/acquisitions and a few showcase ad buys and a few paid appraisals.
The parking revenue commission from referred accounts is practically zero. A few dollars each month, total.
I have concluded the following:
1. My affiliate links are very effective and convert well, a lot of people sign up for SEDO through my site
2. The affiliate program itself converts dismally, I make a negligible amount of money through the program., and the only party that benefits from this partnership is SEDO
With almost 700 accounts registered through my services, I would have expected a lot better.
To me it’s almost unbelieveable how poor the outcome has been. I’ve been using the SEDO API which provides great features for integration, but hasn’t helped the transactions.
What finally opened my eyes was that I introduced a few links through Commission Junction to the GoDaddy program, and the earnings went to a whole other level within the first month. With very little trouble, the GoDaddy program immediately started bringing in 10 times the revenue compared to SEDO.
I must conclude that there is something wrong with the SEDO program. It could be just that the vast majority of SEDO accounts are inactive. Either that or something else.
It’s not worth my while to keep the SEDO links on Estibot anymore, so I’m looking for alternatives and welcome any suggestions. I should have done this a long time ago, but I just couldn’t believe it…
Just thought I’d share my experiences, and hope to hear about your experiences and/or any pointers to other programs.
Thanks
-Esa
Posted: October 17th, 2009 under affiliate, make money.
Tags: affiliate, domain parking, sedo
Comments
Comment from Jamie Zoch
Time October 17, 2009 at 2:00 pm
I think the vast majority of affiliate programs benefit the Site more then the person promoting the program!
I agree, Sedo is very bad with their affiliate program. They get a bunch of traffic from affiliates and pay out very little.
95% of domain related affiliate programs are for the birds. 
Comment from Michael S.
Time October 17, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I’ve sent just shy of 150,000 clicks to Sedo listings through PushToAuction.com. We’ve helped start $225,000 in auctions that resulted in a minimum commission of $22,500 for Sedo… and we’ve made $16. So yea, don’t bother with their affiliate program 
Comment from Pat
Time October 17, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Makes you wonder about their parking payouts, doesn’t it?
Good thing they’re completely transparent there. Oh wait, they’re not at all transparent.
Nice to hear from you Esa! It’s been awhile.
I hope you blog about your domain build-out experiences again, that was a really fantastic series you posted about developing EntrywayOrganizer.com !
Comment from Edwin Sherman
Time October 17, 2009 at 7:04 pm
A few years ago Frank Schilling shared his thoughts on affiliate programs in general. He had similar issues although he was comparing them to PPC:
http://www.sevenmile.com/2007-02/why-i-use-ppc-and-not-affiliate-programs/
Comment from Steve Fox
Time October 18, 2009 at 7:07 am
Wow, I thought you would be making a nice sum, glad you talked about it, but sad it isn’t working out.
Bunch of snakes out there.
Comment from Rick Schwartz
Time October 18, 2009 at 10:13 am
Test, test, test and you will find Thieves, Thieves, Thieves. It’s really the only explanation when the variance is so great. Things change so test again. That said, Sedo has always provided the poorest PPC results for me. They may be more geared to other types traffic however. Some ppc companies are strong is one area, weak in another. TEST until you know each programs strengths and weaknesses.
Comment from Frank Michlick (Domain Name News)
Time October 18, 2009 at 2:02 pm
DNN sends over 1,500 unique visitors to Sedo each month. The problem is – most of them are already Sedo members, so we’ve seen a similar lack of results from our links to them.
Comment from Esa
Time October 18, 2009 at 3:42 pm
@Frank of DNN: SEDO reports that I have referred almost 700 new accounts for them, so that can’t be it. Estibot sends about 6,000 visits to SEDO each month, and 20-40 new SEDO accounts are opened monthly from those visits.
Comment from Chris
Time October 18, 2009 at 7:16 pm
This has been a common trend that has been occuring across alot of industries over the past few years. I think that is why many companies have moved over to the CPA arena because it is about getting them there for exposure to a new product or service which converts pretty well.
Comment from Andrew
Time October 19, 2009 at 1:24 am
I think Sedo’s stats for clicks sent to them are overstated, which may be part of the problem.
I should note that you only get parking referral income for one year from when someone joins. I was making a nice amount from this for a while because I referred a big player, and then after a year it all went away.
That said, I do end up getting several referrals a month for showcase listings, and usually get 1-3 closed sale transactions a month. Usually the commission from these is nominal, although one time a couple years ago I got a $2,000 commission.
Comment from Frank Michlick (Domain Name News)
Time October 19, 2009 at 2:05 pm
On conclusion I’m drawing from this is that I’ll try to run the clicks through my own tracking before sending them out.
Comment from Chirag
Time June 19, 2010 at 3:36 pm
The parking revenue commission from referred accounts is practically zero. A few dollars each month, total.
Comment from Chirag
Time June 19, 2010 at 3:37 pm
I should note that you only get parking referral income for one year from when someone joins. I was making a nice amount from this for a while because I referred a big player, and then after a year it all went away.
Comment from Francois
Time October 17, 2009 at 1:17 pm
I see again I am not alone.
I have the same bad experience with the Sedo affiliate program.
We own sites exclusively visited by targeted visitors and we don’t do any incentive, viistors need to click text links to access Sedo.
According their stats +80k visitors sent these past years (in fact we counted really much more, but let ignore this part) for a total revenue that once converted by visitor gives less than 1 cents/visitor.
Simply RIDICULOUS!
But that’s the way SEDO has grow.
And this is why big domain forum and big domain sites no longer advertise this company.
When I recently asked for a most than decent and reasonable minimum I only got as response NO.
Welcome to the club