Home > Profit > Affiliate Programs > Getting Started

by Jim Turner

The old saying in marketing applies to affiliate programs: there are two important keys to any business:

1) Making the right offer, so that it clearly outlines the benefits to the prospect

2) Making that offer to the right list, the people who are interested in the product or service.

If you are looking to select affiliate programs, there are numerous sites popping up all over the Internet. Many great directories are out there in a market that is fast becoming crowded. Two of the oldest and most reliable Web Sites to look for affiliate programs are:

Refer-It, http://www.refer-it.com; they judge the top affiliate programs and ranks them.

Also, check out Rick Bier's Web site http://www.2-tier.com AssociatePrograms, http://www.associateprograms.com which is run by Allan Gardyne and is a rich resource of information on the subject.

Before we begin, remember that there are two ways for you to affiliate with these programs:

A. At your own Web Site, which you update periodically to reflect changes in your product line and marketing;

B. Via your email/ezine list, which can operate without a Web Site.

You would be surprised how much more effective a good ezine/email list is than a Web Site. Web Sites are important but don't expect your visitors to be so energetic that they seek you out. If you have a Web Site, be sure to capture email addresses of your visitors and remind them to come back.

Most affiliate program providers seem to be in love only with banner advertising at your Web Site, which is not necessarily the best way to go. Banner ads get a small amount of traffic and sales generated (see the next chapter for details). Consider this when you are choosing an affiliate program.

Here are the guidelines to follow when selecting an affiliate program:

1) Get paid well for whatever you do.

Make sure that you have a good selection of products to choose from. If you are selecting more than one affiliate program, make sure they fit together logically, i.e., don't sell flowers and hunting gear. Many programs being offered up today are two-tiered. This allows you to get paid off the efforts of others that you sell to. Include in your portfolio a few big ticket items. You don't need to sell a ton of those to make a couple hundred dollars.

2) Select your affiliate program based on your target audience and your ability to contact them.

Be wary of signing up for every program under the sun and hoping that a few will work out. Even though most of them are free, the cost in your time and lost customers is tremendous. Confusing people by posting as many affiliate programs as possible will not work. However, it does make sense to promote programs that compliment each other. For example, a lead generating program and a book marketing program. The person buying the book will need leads also.

3) Make sure that the sign up procedure is easy to fill out.

If you find it complicated to begin with, you may find it hard to work with the affiliate provider long term. Also be careful not to pick up an extra workload with an affiliate program. Amazon.com, for instance, insisted that people only promote recommended books at their Web Sites. While the logic is good (an endorsement is much more powerful than simply posting a banner ad at a site), the delivery was flawed. Affiliates wanted an easy way to send traffic to Amazon, even if they got paid less. The result was a growth of this program to include raw links and searches from other Web Sites at a reduced commission.

4) Spend ample time finding the products that you want to promote, not just because they are popular.

Don't sell anything you don't really believe in, or from a company that is not reliable. One bad experience can ruin your customer's opinion of you, even if it is the affiliate company that is the source. There is a provider that I recently became involved with and less than a week later, they ran into all kinds of problems handling the enrollment load. They had to discontinue adding new people. They were not prepared for the influx.

5) Check the way the affiliate program tracks and records your orders.

Do they offer you statistics, email notification, and are they good about paying on time? I have one affiliate program that has not paid me for a sale back in January. I'm waiting to see what their accounting department has to say. Read about the rules and the system they have set up. Do they offer a third party auditing service? Have people complained about this service? You can usually find out from others about a program by posting a question on a forum related to online marketing. A good one to join is mailto:the-toolkit-subscribe@onelist.com

6) Do they give you the marketing tools to help you sell more?

Look for banner ads, free reports, text ads that you can use in an ezine or classified advertisement. The more you have to create, the bigger the burden on you. But also keep in mind that if you are really selling well with a company, you should look for innovative ways to incorporate this into your business. Are they willing to go along with your innovation?

7) Finally, make sure that you have some way to generate long term revenue.

Few affiliate programs can afford to generate traffic back to your Web Site. Do your best to capture information about your visitors and your buyers. If you find that someone bought via your Web Site, send them a thank you note as well. If you let the affiliate provider do all the work, you will lose a long term customer. Make sure you build your customer list.