VoIP Affiliate Program Blog

I wanted to make post on the Vonage service that I have been using.  The experience has been less than desireable, especially when putting them next to the other providers I have used.  The have been inferior from the standpoint of clarity, reliability, support, and price point.  I wouldn’t mind paying a higher pricepoint, as long as the service matched that.  While reviewing others experiences with Vonage, I am finding that this is not just my feeling by far.  As far as Internet Phone service goes, they built their business on a recognition model, and have not done much to improve the quality over the years.  Many Broadband Phone service providers have taken the time to improve the network, or add features….the only thing that Vonage has done is spend more money on marketing.

While it is going to be tough to not add Vonage to my affiliate site, for name recognition alone, I don’t know if it would be a great business decision.  I want people to be able to rely on my recommendations, and from the reviews I read, that will be hard to do once people get a taste of Vonage’s phone service.

I am sure some people have had a great experience with them, and I am hoping that some of those people can post a review on this site.  As far as my soon to be short time with them, it has been far from satisfactory.

Since I gave a review/critique to ViaTalk, I thought I would make a mention regarding my experience with using SunRocket. SunRocket’s Internet Phone service plans are priced similar to ViaTalk, with their unlimited plan priced at $199/year(minus the Free year like VT though). The Unlimited Month-to-Month term is $24.95 per month. They also have a $9.95/month limited edition that gives you 200 minutes per month.

Received the equipment pretty timely, and have not had many problems. I can say that when calling into tech, it wasn’t the greatest service I have ever received. I had some issue getting answers to, what I thought, were simple technical questions.  The support seems to be SunRockets biggest fault, and also one of the most important divisions of an Internet Phone providers business structure.  As far as the actual phone service,  it is fair…..nothing to rave about.

I would agree with the DSLReports.com review page and put them in the middle of the pack. I will be reviewing more of the VoIP service providers soon, and making notes of my experiences with them.

Affiliate Site Coming Soon!

I wanted to start to make some notes on the services that I have tried and my experiences with each.  I know that being familiar with each service provider from a customers point of view is a big part of selecting who I want to be an VoIP affiliate for.  I haven’t used all of the providers that I have mentioned so far in this blog, but I figured noting the ones that I have would be good for future affiliates, or users.   ViaTalk is the first Internet Phone Service provider that I wanted to mention.  This service level and price has been great.  When calling into their office to discuss the service, I was answered promptly, and I found their sales reps to be knowledgable, and very helpful.

When you combine the service, price, and feature set(over 30 standard VoIP features)…..I think this may be the most complete VoIP service available.  Cheap doesn’t always mean bad…..and in this case, it is the complete opposite.  ViaTalk is a service that I am going to have no worries about marketing and selling.
I have read reviews, and of course, every situation is not going to work out the best.  I trust DSLReports‘ rating system, and ViaTalk has been in the Top 3 Residential providers since I have been checking the site.   Based on my experience, and with most other users being more than satisfied, ViaTalk’s affiliate program, and their service, is an easy reccommendation.  I will surely keep this updated if there are any positive changes, and of course, any negative changes to my ViaTalk experience.

I will continue to note on my pesonal experience with the other providers I have used, and keep them updated.  Feel free to let me know of any experiences with ViaTalk, and/or other providers service or VoIP Affiliate programs.

Today while browsing through some affiliate manager programs that offer multiple options for VoIP affiliate programs, I came across ZingoTel.  I found Zingo through ShareaSale.com, and they are offering $20/sale, and 30 day cookie tracking for the sales for the residential Internet Phone Service, and the $60/sale for the Business Unlimited Plans.  Zingo also offers 2 tier commissions for their offerings through this program.

ZingoTel plans look pretty solid as far pricing goes:

Residential Unlimited - $19.95/Month with the 1st Month being Free

Residential 400 Minute Plan - $14.95/Month with the First Month Free

Business Unllimited - $49.95/Month

As far as the call quality goes, I have not been able to find too many reviews of the service. I am hoping to locate some user reviews reagrding whether this is a quality Internet Phone Service.  These smaller VoIP providers are gaining some presence in the marketplace these days, and I would say would be worth a try.  I just know that there are enough medium size Internet Phone providers out there that would give consumers a little more comfort in the network they are looking to  use.

I realized that I had mentioned my Top 3 Internet Phone Affiliate choices as of now, and included in it was ViaTalk. I then realized that I forgot to post the findings on ViaTalk. Their VoIP affiliate program is at the top of the list due to their Internet Phone Service offers, the commissions for sales, and the fact that is a direct relationship with provider.

ViaTalk Internet Phone has four offers: VT Unlimited, VT500, VT_b Unlimited ,and VT_b 1500. Since I am focusing on seeling more towards residential at this time, their VT Unlimited is the best offer I have seen. At this time, it is $199 for the first year of Unlimited calling to the U.S. and Canada, and they include the second year of Unlimited service for Free.  This is by far the cheapest Internet Phone Service in the marketplace today.  You may also choose, the VT500 for as low as $9.95 per month.  All of the residential plans include the neccessary equipment, and 34 standard VoIP features.  ViaTalk also offers optional features such as toll free numbers, virtual numbers, and dedicated fax lines.

ViaTalk’s offers are the true meaning of “cheap, doesn’t make it bad”.  I have been reading reviews onlineand comparing VoIP providers, form sources such as DSLReports.com, and ViaTalk is always ranking among the Top 2 or 3 residential VoIP providers.  I have found that ViaTalk has spent their money building a solid and reliable Internet Phone Service, rather than just throwing a ton of dollars into marketing and exposure like other VoIP providers, which shall remain nameless. This strategy has allowed ViaTalk to move to the top of list with most users, and enjoy some of the highest ratings in the VoIP market today.

ViaTalk’s affiliate program has the following payouts:

Sales 1-10= $50 per sale

Sales 11-20= $55 per sale

Sales 21+= $60 per sale

2 Tier Commissions are also available:

            Know someone who would make a great affiliate? Refer other affiliates to our voip affiliate program and earn                  10% of any commissions they earn throughout their voip affiliate career. That’s an easy way to do something                 once and get paid for it multiple times in the future. This is a virtually unlimited opportunity to make thousands             of additional dollars.

This VoIP affiliate program seems to be the best in the market at this time, and I have this determination not only for the payouts, but also due to the fact it is back with ViaTalk’s reliable and quality Internet Phone Service and support.

Right now while still reviewing some of the VoIP affiliate programs, I am looking for a solid domain name to start developing my web presence for selling.  After taking a look at searches for Internet Phone Service, VoIP, and Broadband Phone Service, I think that I am going to try and get a domain name that focuses on Internet Phone.

The VoIP affiliate marketplace is growing and I know that positioning is a huge factor.  I am looking into the paid search options, but want to also get enough free traffic to really make some money.  It will be a lot tweaking, and trial and error to get the ranking up….also time and patience, which may be the most important.

At this time, I am looking at probably listing around 6 different top Internet Phone Service providers.  Right now, the final list looks to definitely include Vonage, SunRocket, and ViaTalk.  I will be hoping to finalize the rest of the list soon.

Based on a response to my last post, I decided to take a look at Clear Digital Voice’s service plans, and their referral program. They have some great plans for their Internet Phone offerings. Their first offer is a “Basic” plan that is $14.99/month and includes 500 minutes in the U.S. and Canada. The top offering is a “Popular Unlimited” plan that is for Unlimted phone calls to the U.S. and Canada, and this plan also includes International call to Italy, France, Spain, UK and Ireland. This seems like a big advantage to their residential Internet Phone Service plans. Clear Digital Voice VoIP’s business plans are also nicely priced at $39.99 for the for the Basic which includes 1500 minutes, and $49.99 Unlimited plan which includes the same International calling areas. Each business plan includes 2 lines, which I find to be a nice advantage for businesses looking to take advantage of the savings that VoIP has to offer. All of these plans have an initial promotion of the First Month for Free and No setup fees. Clear Digital Voice has a basic Internet Phone feature set.

The notes that I do see at the bottom of the pages are:

“Note:
* One-time startup charges: $9.95 shipping fee; $50 refundable deposit applies if rental option.
* For service packages WITH CONTRACT, $50 cancellation fee applies if you cancel after the first free month and before 1 year. ”

Each Internet Phone Service provider seems to have these “catches”. Everyone shopping for the most reliable internet phone service provider should always make sure they read the fine print and the terms of service before signing up. I read too many posts where people claim they are being scammed, but when it comes down to it, they just didn’t read anything they were agreeing to when they signed up.

As for the refferal program of Clear Digital Voice, it is a little different than the other VoIP providers that i have examined already. The payouts are not one-time, but instead based on a recurring, multi-level commissions. Their website notes the following:

• Earn $2.00 per month for every friend you refer to us.
• Earn an additional $1.00 per month if your friend refers a new customer to us.
• Earn an additional $0.50 per month if your friend’s friend refers a new customer to us.
• Commissions are paid EVERY MONTH for as long as your friend remains our customer.

All new customers you and your friends refer to us will receive their FIRST MONTH FREE.

This Internet Phone affiliate program runs a little different than the traditional ones, but it does make sense. Their big push is how easy it is to receive “Free Service for Life” through this referral system.

The offerings look great, and the referral program is interesting, now I would just need to know a little bit more about the quality of the Internet Phone Service itself. I haven’t been able to locate many reviews of this service. I f anyone has experience with this service, it would be great if you could leave some comments on your experiences.

before I get this new Internet Phone Affiliate thing started.  I am now starting to look at my options for domain names for the web presence.  I have reviewed many VoIP companies and still have a few more to go, but with all of the research I’ve done, I now have a better idea of what the marketplace offers.  I understand that the domain, and web positioning are the biggest obstacles to being a success or failure  in the affiliate game.   I am now looking into my options for paid search, and they inculde the obvious….Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and MSN Live.  These options will obviously cost some cash, and I will need to couple them with natural search.  Natural search listings will be the toughest part of this campaign, since it is going to take a while to have the site recognized, and build content for it.

Learning about VoIP, and entering into the Internet Phone service affiliate exploding market is exciting, and it should be a fun adventure.  I also know that it is going to hard work, and take some time to figure the search ranking out.  I will continue making some notes on other VoIP Provider affiliate programs, and on the development of the marketing plan itself.

I was looking through the sites looking for some new Internet Phone service affiliate programs to explore, and I came across a site, IPPhoneRatings.com, while searching google. It was ranked at the bottom of the providers, but when I took a look at the website, they appear to have some plans that I have not come accross. VoIPYourLife’s most expensive plan is, Premier Global Unlimited, is $29.97/month, but it includes Unlimted calling to over 30 countries. These type of calling plans can be very beneficial to potential Internet Phone subscribers. Their second plan, Premier Unlimited, is $23.97/month…..right around the VoIP industry average…..and includes unlimted calling to the U.S. and Canada. VoIPYourLife’s most basic calling plan, obviously named Premier Basic, is $14.97/month and includes unlimted incoming calls and on-net calls…..U.S. and Canada outgoing calls are charged at 2.4 cents/minute. They have a solid feature set also.

The one thing that concerns me is their choice of Sipura equipment, as I have read that it isn’t the highest quality. I may be wrong with saying that, but from the review sites, I have come to the conclusion that users are less than happy.

VoIPYourLife’s Affiliate program is based on a tier system, with the threshold being 50 monthly sales of any plans. Here is the breakdown:

1. Selling more than 50 of any combination of plans pays $15 for each Premier Basic, $25 for
each Premier Unlimited and $30 for each Premier Global Unlimited.

2. Selling 50 or less of any combination of plans, pays $12 for each Premier Basic, $20 for each
Premier Unlimited and $25 for each Premier Global Unlimited.

Also, VoIPYourLife has 3 different ways to sell:

1. Click Through - Use the code and instructions below to add a VoIPYourLife banner to your
web page. You will receive credit for customers that click through and order service!

2. Affinity - Have the customer enter your agent ID (your VoIPYourLife primary number) in the
Referal/Promo box when they sign up for service.

3. Direct - Sign your up customers directly through our checkout pages at:
http://www.voipyourlife.com/?salesperson=your_agent_id

While looking at the various Internet Phone service providers in the marketplace today, it interesting to see the norms, and how plans have developed. VoIPYourLife has interesting offers, and the inclusion of International calling seems like it could be a huge draw for consumers. Most service providers have great international rates to begin with, and when everything settles, it is going to be the ones with the most reliable networks coming out ahead. So, while these plans look great on paper, I am going to have to do more research as far as the actual service goes.

Coming from my last post, I am taking a look at some of the providers I had previously mentioned from a standpoint of their reviews by existing and previous users.  I know these may not be the most reliable data, but I am going to have to use this when making a decision between what VoIP Providers to use for my affiliate sales.  As noted below, there are different providers with very similar plans, and my goal is for conversions, not confusion.  While looking through sites such as VoIPReview, and DSLReports, you can formulate a clear view of peoples thoughts and experiences.  I just need to make sure that I take a look at all the factors with each individual VoIP providers reviews.
In my last post, I mentioned trying to decide between offering Vonage and ECR.  After really thinking about it, it would be tough not to be an affiliate of Vonage with the marketing they are providing every day.  People that don’t know that much about the industry are automatically thinking they are the standard for Internet Phone Service. While learning more about the industry and technology, individuals will learn quickly that there are better VoIP options out there.

While looking at the various reviews, I found that ECR is receiving a “5 out of 5″(this measurement seems to be standard for rating VoIP service providers) rating, wihle Vonage receives around an average of 3.  This is all in relation to the number of reviews that are in place for the provider itself….for example, on one review site, Vonage had 682 reviews by users that translated into a 3 rating, and ECR had 13 reviews that translated into the 5 rating.

I am going to try locating more VoIP rating services so I can get a clearer picture of the providers already mentioned and the Internet Phone providers that i have yet to review.  This way I can create my own review sample for each.