Affiliate Program, Blog, Getting Started
Affiliate Program - The Basics
Get an Affiliate Program to Work for You
GOOD NEWS:
If you don’t have an affiliate program for your online store, you could have your affiliate program up and running with 48 hours. Why is this important? There are tens of thousands of potential affiliates waiting to promote your products.
- Some are one person operations in your niche
- Some are companies whose only business is being an affiliate of others
- Some are bloggers
- Some are coupon sites
- And the list goes on
The point is that you NEED to get into this marketing effort.
Affiliate Program 101 - The Basics
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:
If the online store WidgetStore.com had an affiliate program and an affiliate, say Joe, who owns WidgetsAreWonderful.com sends traffic through an affiliate link to WidgetStore.com, Joe would earn a commission if the person who he sent over did something (usually make a purchase, but other options may include signing up for something, downloading a document, or other lead generating signups).
In this case, if Joe’s visitor ordered online, WidgetStore would give Joe a percentage of the sale.Not bad – and don’t forget that there is no commission of the price of the shipping, so if you make money on shipping (and I hope you do), that’s even better!
If you start an affiliate program, you’ll need to be mindful to provide both the affiliate and the affiliate site’s visitors some form of value. Usually for the site visitor, it’s a form of a discount (free shipping, percentage off, etc.). Usually for the affiliate, it’s a above average commission or other incentives for generating a lot of sales (say, a one-time bonus if this month’s sales exceed $500).
Where to start an affiliate program?
Some e-commerce software solutions already have built-in affiliate feature. While this is good, the down side is that you’ll have to find all of your affiliates. Not fun, but doable!
However, if you want to generate immediate sales (with a good return on investment), I recommend joining an affiliate network. Affiliate networks come in different flavors and some are expensive (thousands per month) while some are a bargain at several hundred dollars (like ShareASale).
Here is a list of some of the top affiliate networks to get you started:
Top Affiliate Networks
Commission Junction - industry leader, huge networks of affiliates
Linkshare - the other industry leader, huge networks of affiliates
Performics - search agency too
My Affiliate Program - great for small and mid-sized businesses
ShareASale - a strong, affordable affiliate solution for small and mid-sized businesses
There are many more affiliate programs (like Amazon) and networks. Visit ABestWeb.com to see a comprehensive list.
The most important reason to choose an affiliate network instead of just started your own affiliate program (outside of a network) is the pool of affiliates ready to join your program. From day one of starting your affiliate program within a network, you will have afiliates finding you. They have well-established websites and they’re ready to plug your products into their site.
There are many affiliate sites who join most companies’ affiliate programs and that’s okay.
To see a quick sample of these, type in your favorite store’s name into Google and add the word “coupon” – i.e. “Best Buy coupon” or “Target coupon.” Most of the sites to appear in the search results are affiliate sites. These sites may be some of your top performing affiliates, especially if you can offer their visitors a special discount or free shipping offer.
If you already have an affiliate program, take the next several days to improve your program by following these steps:
- Contact your top affiliates - ask them “what do they need to generate more sales for your business?”
- Contact your non-performing affiliates - if you have a typical affiliate program, a majority of your affiliates are inactive. Try to make them active this week. Send them an email with a special bonus if they generate $25 of sales this month.
- Contact potential affiliates - either within your industry or the key affiliates that join most company’s programs. They’re out there!
- Get help - work with your affiliate network’s professional services to use their experience to find new affiliates for you.
AFFILIATE RESOURCES:
Featured Advanced Affiliate Tools:
GoldenCAN - great way to find new affiliates
DataFeedFile - similar to GoldenCAN - find affiliates
Featured FREE Affiliate Links:
ABestWeb.com - the largest site for affiliates and affiliate managers.
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