3 KEYS TO SUCCESS WITH YOUR AFFILIATE PROGRAM

3 KEYS TO SUCCESS WITH YOUR AFFILIATE PROGRAM
BY: ANDY MURRAY
copyright 2005 andy murray

AFFILIATE PROGRAMS (ALSO CALLED REFERRAL PROGRAMS OR
partnership programs) are essentially commission-based sales
schemes.

joining an affiliate program is a neat way to make money from
your users. but just as you can join someone else's affiliate
PROGRAM, SO YOU CAN SET UP YOUR OWN PROGRAM AND INVITE
webmasters to sign up. here are my top 3 tips to succeed with
your own affiliate program.

1. how to attract affiliates

one of the biggest fears new affiliate managers have is in
finding new affiliates. this fear is a stumbling block that
STOPS MANY SITE OWNERS FROM GETTING STARTED WITH AFFILIATE
marketing. interestingly, with a proper marketing strategy,
getting affiliates may not be very difficult. given below are
SOME TIPS THAT MAY HELP IN ATTRACTING NEW AFFILIATES.

find complimentary sites - "complementary" sites are sites that
SELL PRODUCTS OR SERVICES THAT COMPLIMENT YOUR OFFERS. IF YOU
sell "gardening tools", a site that sells books on "gardening
tips" would be a perfect affiliate.

find content sites - there are many sites that do not sell any
kind of product or service but are mainly content oriented
SITES. SUCH SITES PROMOTE AN IDEA, CONCEPT, STUDY OR BELIEF.
content sites that are used as a resource for your target
market are ideal affiliates.

finally, there are several sites on the internet dedicated to
listing affiliate programs. get your program listed in these
DIRECTORIES.

2. CLASSIFYING AFFILIATES FOR BETTER MANAGEMENT

the hardest part of administrating an affiliate program is
DECIDING WHAT YOUR AFFILIATES NEED TO HELP MAKE THE SALE. BUT,
by carefully categorizing your affiliates, you can easily
determine what their needs are and how to accurately meet them.

the first step is to pick at least three types of affiliate.
take a look at your affiliates and try to determine one
OUTSTANDING CHARACTERISTIC THAT CAN EASILY BE COMPARED ACROSS
the board and choose at least three types of the
characteristic.

the second step is to determine the needs of each type. each of
your affiliate types will have different needs; some of their
NEEDS WILL OVERLAP, BUT YOU SHOULD FIND A DISTINCT DIFFERENCE
in many of their needs. if you find that all of them have the
same needs, go back to step one and re-think your types.

the third step involves the process of creating and compiling
linking methods for each group of affiliates. based on the
NEEDS YOU IDENTIFIED IN STEP TWO, CREATE AND COMPILE LINKING
methods for each type.

3. safe guarding against spam

ANY TIME YOU RUN A PROGRAM WHERE YOUR AFFILIATES RELY ON OTHER
signups to generate profits, you will eventually have a problem
with spam. one of your affiliates will inevitably get it into
THEIR HEAD TO BLITZ THE WEB WITH UNWANTED GARBAGE.

when this happens you need to be ready to take action otherwise
IT WILL COST YOU! YOUR INTERNET COMPANY CAN BOOT YOU OFF YOUR
server and you can find yourself blacklisted. not good for
business. if you get an email from someone claiming they
RECEIVED SPAM WITH YOUR URL, THEN TAKE IT AS AN EARLY WARNING.

i am not advising you to immediately terminate the affiliate's
ACCOUNT, BUT BE SURE TO CONTACT THEM TO FOLLOW UP ON THE
complaint. let your affiliate know you received a complaint and
advise them to remove this person from their list.

if you only get one or two complaints, it's probably not spam,
the complainants might simply have signed up for an email list
AND FORGOTTEN ALL ABOUT IT. YOU WILL KNOW WHEN ONE OF YOUR
affiliates is spamming, because you will get anywhere from 10
to 100 complaints in the same day all regarding the same url.

the best thing to do in this case is to immediately terminate
or disable the account of the affiliate url that was spammed.

running your own affiliate program can become an extrememly
profitable venture for your business. you can recruit a huge
SALES FORCE PROMOTING YOUR PRODUCTS FOR YOU, AND ONLY PAY THEM
when you make a sale!
andy murray is a marketer and publisher writing informative
REPORTS TO HELP GROW YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS. GET HIS LATEST
offering "get stinking rich from affiliate programs" for free
by simply following this link:
HTTP://WWW.ZEROHOURMARKETING.COM/AFFILIATE-MARKETING-REPORT.HTM