FlexOffers.com was founded in 2008…but, honestly, that’s pretty much all we know about their genesis.
They seem to be pretty camera-shy in an industry chock full of team photos and mission statements.
Regardless, FlexOffers has worked hard to establish itself as a force to be reckoned with in the world of affiliate marketing.
After all, they’re up against some pretty stiff competition in the form of Commission Junction, Rakuten Linkshare, and Amazon, among others.
So how well have they done considering they turned up to the party 8 – 10 years after everyone else?
Signing Up
Before we start, I have a teeny, tiny confession to make – I goofed when I set up my FlexOffers account.
For some weird reason, I chose ‘Advertiser’ instead of ‘Publisher’.
The FlexOffers support team then actually took the time to e-mail me and say, “Umm…did you make a mistake?”
This is the kind of response I love seeing from an affiliate network – slightly tongue in cheek and got the problem sorted.
Unlike the affiliate marketing network I’ve been trying to verify my site with now….for the last 4 months.
Anyways, how do you go about signing up as an affiliate publisher for FlexOffers?
The 4-step process is as follows:
#1 Verify your email address and choose a password for your account:
#2 You then need to login to complete the account registration process, providing some basic personal and company information:
#3 Now it’s time to tell them where you plan on putting your affiliate banners and links, or basically what your traffic sources are.
It’s interesting to see that they view social media and website traffic differently – this might speak to some of their internal processes.
And you also need to confirm if you’re a coupon site, comparison site, or use pop-ups in your affiliate marketing efforts.
#4 Finally, you need to verify your phone number and ownership of the website you listed in your application:
And that’s it – now you just sit back and wait for them to review your application favorably, or not, for that matter.
To be fair, FlexOffers do seem to review and approve even relatively new sites with very little content. Or at least they did for the new-ish affiliate site I used.
Their support FAQs also explain how to verify your free Wix, WordPress or Blogger site – that’s pretty unusual these days.
So the FlexOffers registration process is a little bit longwinded, but it’s bearable.
One final note here is that you can also earn a commission for referring other affiliates to the FlexOffers network through their FlexRev-$hare program.
People who sign up “under” you become sub-affiliates so you earn a cut of ever referred sale they make.
So, you effectively become a FlexOffers affiliate when you create your account.
What brands can you promote?
At face value, Flex Offers looks like the kind of network (and this is a first impressions thing) that wouldn’t be able to land big names.
But they do – including brands like those listed below, plus Nike, Lenovo, Bloomingdales, Priceline, Barnes & Noble, Skechers, and thousands more.
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Altogether they represent 12,000 advertisers of all sizes, but their portfolio rivals pretty much any affiliate network I can think of.
But they do identify that only 500 0f their advertisers should be classed as “premium”, but that’s still a hell of a lot more than other networks that have been around for decades longer.
So, credit where credit is due – FlexOffers have done a formidable job getting these advertisers on their books.
Ease of Use
And this is the point where some affiliate networks soar into the heavens…and others crash to Earth like a meth-addled pigeon.
- Home
- Advertisers
- Reports
- Links
- Data Feeds
- Account
- FlexRev-$hare
- News
- Support
For starters, I really dislike the color scheme used by FlexOffers here – it’s a dark blue banner, with a black banner beneath it, and then white icons overlaid on top of that.
I find it really difficult to concentrate on it for very long because you have multiple elements lumped on top of each other.
In two separate navigation menus.
This is my least favorite dashboard of any affiliate network bar ClickBank.
You also get your basic ‘Network Stats’ here:
And then just a small mountain of thumbnails for advertisers, that is frankly overwhelming.
Maybe it’s just my OCD kicking in, but I have to scroll past it quickly or it starts to annoy me.
Long story short, FlexOffers does an okay job when it comes to UX and its affiliate dashboard.
Finding affiliate programs
So far, FlexOffers has been a mixture of mostly positives but with some obvious negatives.
Now let’s take a look at what it’s like to track down affiliate programs.
FlexOffers has over 12,000 advertisers on its network.
That’s a seriously impressive figure, but as we mentioned earlier only a few hundred of these are the big brands most affiliates chase after.
Let’s go hunting for affiliate programs – click on ‘Search Advertisers’ to get started.
From there you can search by:
- Advertiser name
- Keywords
The FlexOffers affiliate interface is like a cleaned-up version of the one offered by Commission Junction.
In addition to the above, you can also search for advertisers by:
- Categories
- Countries
- Payout Type
- Data Feeds
Payout Type is one of the more interesting options because you can find an affiliate program that pays per sale, per action, per lead, per click and per install.
And you can also filter FlexOffers advertisers by their EPC, which is very helpful because you can separate the wheat from the chaff:
Once you’ve found the programs you want to join you then simply click on ‘Apply Now’.
But you do need to apply to each program individually, and it takes roughly 2 – 3 days for your application to be approved or denied.
Creating affiliate links
So, what’s the FlexOffers affiliate link creation process like?
You can access this via the main navigation menu under ‘Links’ or by clicking on ‘Advertisers’ -> ‘Search Advertisers’ and then use the ‘Status – Approved’ filter.
And then simply click ‘Get Links’:
You can then filter the listed creatives by whether they’re a text link, banner or widget, but also by their EPC.
And if you’ve read any of my other blog posts on the subject of affiliate networks (and you should – I’m very entertaining…and humble) then you’ll know that omitting EPC’s is a pet hate of mine.
You also get the option of searching through your joined advertisers for deep links and widgets.
What I found though was a lack of advertisers offering deep links, and none of my approved advertisers offered ad widgets.
This might be a technical glitch or a glaring oversight…I’m not sure which.
Then simply click on ‘View Link’ to get the full HTML code:
FlexOffers also provides a link shortening service, so you won’t have to rely on third-party options:
Overall, I do like the FlexOffers interface here– it’s clean, relatively modern, and gets the job done with a minimum of fuss.
But, they do lack the kind of advanced link building tools you’ll find on other networks like a bookmarklet, for example.
Getting Paid
Now let’s look at when FlexOffers pay their affiliates.
Payment timeframe
As a FlexOffers affiliate, you’ll get paid Net 60.
This means that any commissions you earn in March will be paid in June, with the majority of payments taking place in the first week of the month.
But there’s a tiny bit of confusion around when FlexOffers pay their affiliates. The homepage mentions Net 7, but it’s unclear whether this is a payment timeframe or some kind of payment solutions provider.
FlexOffers does offer ‘Advanced Payments’ for certain affiliates, which will arrive a lot sooner than the Net 60 date, but you do have to pay a small network fee (apparently around 6%) of your due earnings.
So for now, just take for granted that all affiliate payments are Net 60 because you have to qualify for their advance payment option.
Payment methods
It’s nice for affiliates to be able to choose the payment method that best suits them, and FlexOffers provides a lot of…flexibility here.
You can choose to receive your commission payment by any of the following methods:
- Bank transfer
- Wire transfer
- Check
- PayPal
Alternatively, you can ask FlexOffers to withhold your payment until you reach a certain balance, or until a time and date that suits you.
Payment threshold
You have to earn at least US$25 before you can receive payment from FlexOffers, but there are fees associated with this:
- Checks – $3
- Bank transfer – $1
- International transfer – $5
Wire Transfers also require that a FlexOffers affiliate hit a threshold of US$1,000 before payment can be made.
Publisher Help
The FlexOffers knowledge base is rudimentary, and that’s the nicest thing I can say about it because it’s barely there.
Or at least that was the case until they updated it while I was writing this review.
Typical, eh?
The previous customer support system was a handful of FAQs and the ticketing system had a very “thrown together” feel to it.
It also didn’t exactly fill me with confidence in the network if that was what they considered to be adequate support for a FlexOffers affiliate.
But they’ve since upgraded to Zendesk, so you can actually search for answers instead of having to open a ticket.
It’s not that the ticketing system was inefficient – it just felt like they were trying to keep publishers at arm’s length.
FlexOffers also provides an email address to contact them directly on, and a telephone number.
They don’t provide a timeframe for when you’ll receive a reply, but most emails are apparently answered within 24 hours.
FlexOffers Reviews
So, I took a look around the web for any negative comments or posts I could find about FlexOffers:
Here’s what I turned up:
This is a pretty serious complaint – that affiliate accounts with high earnings are basically shut down to prevent payment.
The next set of complaints covers some of the same territory – withheld affiliate commissions, and a pretty dim view of FlexOffers’ customer support and ticketing systems.
And even more feedback on affiliate payments going missing or being massively delayed, even if the amounts are small.
It’s always a good idea to ask yourself some questions when you find yourself faced with posts like this.
The first one for me is, “Why would FlexOffers screw you out of $100 if it might cause them $100,000 in reputational damage?”
But that’s not to say that errors or omissions in payment don’t happen with FlexOffers or any other affiliate network for that matter.
Mandatory Security
Something that FlexOffers deserves a special mention for is the fact that they force you to use Two-factor authentication as part of the login process.
This means having a code sent to your phone to log in at the start of each day.
Now, while this annoys the hell out of me at times, it also provides my account with a level of security that I don’t have on any other affiliate network.
So I do kinda wish other affiliate networks did the same, especially considering how commonplace data breaches are becoming.
TFA (Two Factor Authentication) can obviously become an issue though if you lose access to your phone number.
Flexoffers Summary
URL: FlexOffers
Year established: 2008
Number of merchants: 12,000+
Offer types: Per action, Per sale, Per lead, Per Install
Weighing it up
So let’s give you lazy types the TLDR version of our FlexOffers review:
Pros
- Literally tens of thousands of advertisers to choose from
- One of the few mainstream networks with credit card offers
- Two-factor login as standard – I’m now a fan
- Easy sign-up process and very accepting of new affiliates
- Lots and lots of payment options
- Streamlined interface…for the most part
- Flex-Rev$hare program – you get paid for sales made by sub-affiliates
Cons
- The color scheme of their UI kills my eyes – less blue, please!
- Lack of advanced link creation tools
- Customer support options are decidedly average
Summary
So here we are at the conclusion of our Flexoffers review.
This is an affiliate network with a lot to offer, especially in terms of the sheer number of advertisers they have.
They’ve nailed some aspects of being an affiliate network (advertisers, link tools, etc) but seemed to only recently bother to upgrade their customer support tools.
Overall, there’s a lot of room for growth here.
Because growth is part of life – like wanting to grow your personal income.
If that’s something of interest to you, we’d love to offer you a spot in our free training class.
You’ll learn how to get started in affiliate marketing, and what it takes to build your first affiliate site.
You’ve got nothing to lose…and potentially quite a lot to gain.
So let us know where to send your invitation, and we’ll take care of the rest.
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