What do you consider a "reasonable" commission delay?

[zomgmike]

What do you consider a reasonable wait period before awarding a commission with an affiliate program?

So let's begin by stating the obvious:
0 days is too short, the commission can be withdrawn before a refund is issued, a payment disputed, etc.
180 days is about how long consumers have to dispute payments, so you can safely book-end the range there. Most affiliates wouldn't tolerate it, obviously.

So the answer is somewhere in there. Since there's a lot of X factors like whether or not you know the affiliate (and if he's playing the system) let's assume an arm's length relationship with the affiliate for the purposes of this. You don't truly "know" the affiliate or client.

I don't want to tell you what I think until you've had a chance to come up with an answer of your own. (spoiler, in hex my answer would be 0x3C to 0x5A days)

 

[SenseiSteve]

So 60 to 90 days - nice try using hex Yeah, that sounds reasonable.

 

[Localnode]

Assuming the refund period is 30 days - I'd say 60 - 90 days.
The industry standard is around 60 - 90 days.

 

[bigredseo]

We were 45 days, and actually never had a problem. We paid out close to $5k/month in commissions.

 

[KnownHost]

45 days tends to work well. Let's you catch any fraud and chargebacks etc before paying out commission.

 

[MVPS]

60 days minimum. There's too much fraud in the affilate system at the moment.

 

[hostEONS]

30 days if you don't offer refunds, if you offer refund then add a few days to your money back guarantee period

 

[bigpowerhosting]

We do 45 days payout.

 

[iHostingX.com]

Math is great here, but I think the answer also depends upon the dynamics of your individual business. For example, what is your chargeback history like? Should this be a factor that is considered? Can you build a model that shows you the most profitable time at which to release commission payments?

 

[ronweeks]

I think this will be different for each company. I don't think there is a specifically set rule of how long you should wait to pay out a commission. It really depends on I think what your charging customers and then you need to figure out a set rule of if you give a money back guarantee you have to to figure out around that, because you want to make sure the customer is actually sticking around for longer then a day.