Starting An Affiliate Program
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Starting an affiliate program is a great way to market your
products or services to a market that you may not have had the
resources to market to. There are many different ways to manage an
affiliate program such as in-house affiliate program or going to one
of the large affiliate networks.
The information below will hopefully assist you with
finding the potential value of starting an affiliate
program. At first you may be hesitant but unlike other
advertising methods such as
pay per click
advertising, you only pay if a sale is made rather
than someone just clicking on a link to your website.
What Is An Affiliate Program
An affiliate program is a program that will allow other people to
link to your website using a link that's setup specifically for
them. When this link is clicked a cookie is written to the computer
of the person now visiting your website.
If that person completes a purchase you agree to pay that affiliate
a specified percentage of the sale. How you manage the affiliate
program is completely up to you but it's important to consider all
of your options because once you've setup an affiliate program it's
not recommended that you change providers.
How To Manage An Affiliate Program
This step is sort of difficult considering the budget that you're
most likely on. You can go with an in-house affiliate program by
installing a program on your website but there are disadvantages to
this that I'll cover later in the article.
You can also select an affiliate network which manages your
affiliate program by paying affiliates, tracking sales, etc. The
problem that you'll run into with this method is the upfront costs
involved.
Affiliate Program Networks
An affiliate network is a website / company that manages the
tracking and payment details of your affiliate program. They are
very popular because affiliates can track all of their affiliate
campaigns from one place rather than having 100 different websites
to log into.
The other benefit of going with an affiliate network is that most
affiliate programs have a minimum amount that needs to be in their
account before a company will send them a check. Using an affiliate
network allows affiliates to accumulate earnings from many different
websites and therefore accumulate enough to be paid monthly.
With this in mind, it's much easier to build a list of affiliates
for your program by going through and affiliate network.
Now the disadvantages, the biggest obstacle that you'll probably
run into is the setup cost. Companies like
Commission Junction
require setup fees in the thousands plus they require a large
initial deposit that stays in reserve to ensure that you have the
funds to pay your affiliates each month.
There is a company called
ShareASale.com
that sort of focuses on smaller businesses because you can have an
affiliate program up and running for about $600 including your
initial deposit.
In-House Affiliate Programs
The idea of an in-house affiliate program is that you manage
everything in regards to tracking and paying your affiliates. This
is generally done using some sort of affiliate program software.
A popular piece of software is
iDevDirect
because they have functionality that allows you to use SEO related
URLs so in addition to building your affiliate program your getting
valuable links to your website to build your
link popularity.
A disadvantage for using an in-house affiliate program is the
additional bookkeeping involved with making your monthly payouts.
The main disadvantage is the ability to acquire new affiliates.
Generally if you run an in-house affiliate program you'll only get
affiliates that are familiar with your product or service. Paying to
be included in an affiliate network exposes your program to
thousands and thousands of new affiliates that may not be familiar
with your website.
Marketing Your Affiliate Program
There are quite a few ways to market your new affiliate program but
the best exposure that money can buy is through a forum called
ABestWeb.com.
They offer the ability to post your new affiliate program in their
'new affiliate program' section.The fee may have changed so I
recommend taking a look at the site and check out the current rate.
This will get you a bunch of publicity plus as you answer questions
your affiliate program will be bumped to the top so if you can keep
on top of the forum you can keep bumping your program to the top to
get additional exposure that you wouldn't have received.
Some other options are by sending out a newsletter of your new
affiliate program or simply issuing a press release. You can find
options for free press releases but as normal, you get what you pay
for but any free exposure is definitely worth it.
Webmaster ForumI invite you to visit my
webmaster forum,
it's a great place to discuss websites and ask questions to fellow
webmasters regarding topics that you may still have questions on. |
