1. Look around at other competing businesses that offer affiliate programs, and think of ways that you can make your affiliate program more attractive.
2. Pay your affiliates well for their efforts.
If you're thinking about offering a 10% commission for sales of your product and a competing business is paying a 50% commission for referrals, you'll lose affiliates to your competitor.
3. Make your affiliate program more lucrative by offering residual commissions.
This is an excellent choice if you offer a product that is paid for on a residual basis such as webhosting or access to your membership site.
4. Offer lifetime commissions.
Your affiliates will see the power of lifetime commissions, and work hard to promote your business and send you more sales.
5. Make your affiliate program two-tier.
Reward your affiliates by giving them a commission on the sales of people they refer to your affiliate program.
6. Don't leave your affiliates out in the cold.
Provide your affiliates with lots of sales items that they can use to successfully promote your products.
Some items you could offer your affiliates:
- e-zine ads (sponsor ads, classified ads, 2 liners) - signature file ads - sales letters/solo ads - brandable ebooks - sample recommendations - email courses - your articles that they can reprint with their affiliate URLs in your resource box.
7. Be quick to respond to your affiliates' emails.
An easy way to lose your affiliates is to not respond to their questions in a timely manner, or to not respond to their e-mails at all.
It shows that you don't value them, and since their are tons of other affiliate programs, you would be losing potentially very good affiliates to other businesses.
8. Provide your own tips and advice.
Follow up with your affiliates with tips and strategies that they can use to increase their commissions.
9. Reward your top affiliates with higher commissions and bonuses.
You'll be able to achieve more sales over the long term because your top affiliates won't jump to another affiliate program where their efforts are more appreciated.
10. Publish an affiliate's newsletter.
Your affiliate's newsletter will help you to share your tips with your affiliates, and keep them going in the right direction.
You could also use your newsletter to keep your top affiliates excited about your program.
Some effective ways to do this are:
- Share what your top affiliates do to earn big commission checks. - Showcase their sites and tell why their sites sell. - List your 5 or 10 highest earning affiliates for the month.
11. Track your affiliates' sales accurately.
Your affiliates will find out if they send you customers and you don't credit them with their commissions.
Your affiliate program will lose credibility and you'll end up losing your affiliates as word gets around.
12. Participate in affiliate marketing forums.
Share your valuable advice and expertise with the members of the forums you participate in.
Include your signature file that promotes your affiliate program, and always follow the rules of the forums you join.
About the author:
Article by Ken Hill. Want To Start Your Own Profit Driving Affiliate Program? Power packed solution has what you need. Includes affiliate program software, shopping cart, ad tracking and easy e-zine management. Automate your online business today at: http://www.scstats.com/r.cfm?i=5029
What do all “super affiliates” want more than anything else? Let’s say it together, they want to get paid and get paid handsomely.
So, what does it take to keep super affiliates on their game and advertising for your business? Well, you could say money again and while that wouldn’t be wrong, the answer has a lot more to do with the assurance of potential for income.
You see some merchants are floundering with the concept of “the cookie” and how long a cookie should be set for. They think that if they shorten the lifespan of the cookie that they won’t keep paying for the affiliate to acquire the same lead several times. So, what you might see in various affiliate programs are merchants who short the affiliate by only giving them a 48-hour window to deliver a lead from the customer’s initial click-through.
Statistics show that most customers will visit a site an average of five times before completing the lead or sales process. I’m thinking that the merchant’s 48-hour window might be a wee bit narrow for the affiliates to get what they want from the transaction and a little short-sighted for the merchant since “super affiliates” aren’t likely to want to help them as a result.
That’s short-sighted thinking. Studies show 98% of sales come within the first 48 hours after a person clicks through to a site. If that’s the case, why wouldn’t you extend that cookie for the maximum time allowed, because it makes the affiliate happier. In fact, some affiliate networks are equipped to track sales as long as 180 days after initial click-through.
If it’s not glaringly obvious, let me say it simply for you. Super affiliates like merchants who set cookies for extended periods of time. The potential for income from their advertising efforts to your potential customers is much greater and for them, that translates to more income return for their efforts to market you.
Super affiliates are “basically, commissioned sales people with the whole world to work for, who can walk away at the drop of a hat. Super affiliates are in the driver’s seat in their relationships with marketers, not the marketers. So you should treat that affiliate as you would anyone in the power situation. They are top producing digital sales people, pay them well and make sure they’re happy.
So, what do all “super affiliates” want? To be paid well and to be ensured happiness throughout the process.
