Building a web site is an important first step to having an Internet presence. But after that the real work begins in terms of promoting it. It’s a huge job in the vastness that is the Internet. You will need some help. Get yourself a horde of affiliates and incentivize them to drive traffic (and sales) your way. There are many 3rd party affiliate management programs available that make it a snap to set up a program. If you look around you will see that all of your competitors have tapped into this valuable channel so you need to, too!
What is it that motivates good partners? The most important thing is they want to promote a product or service that sells. Why should they send you tons of traffic if you can’t convert it into sales commissions for them? In addition to converting well, they will want a good size commission on every sale. It’s not worth their time if they’re only making pennies on each conversion. Be generous. Their success is your success. They will need many different banners to promote your products. Give them dozens of banners in different sizes. And once they’ve produced some sales commissions be sure you pay them quickly. Pick a schedule and stick to it. Regular checks (even if tiny) make for happy partners. Delays in payment make for unhappy (read: no longer with you) affiliates. Keep your partners happy and they will keep you happy.
In the beginning (late 90s) affiliate programs were very straightforward — partners would earn a percent of whatever sales they brought to you. Today, the plans vary quite a bit. You can pay your partners for things other than sales (i.e. leads) and in ways other than a percent (like a fixed fee per lead or sale, or even every month if you’re selling a subscription product). There are also multi-tier programs where partners make money from other partners that they bring you. This can be a great way to get a lot of partners in your program. It may sound like a lot to manage but its easy once you set up the rules and use a service like ShareASale or LinkShare. They have all these rules set up already; you just tell them what kind of plan you want to give your partners and they do the rest.
Remember that affiliates are human beings, too. Treat them nicely. Set up a newsletter for periodic sales announcements, for sure give them their money on a regular schedule, and give them new banners they can use. If you make their job easy they will take advantage and reward you with more and more traffic.
If you’re selling online you need an affiliate program. You may not achieve the glory that Amazon achieved with their program, but you can still have a solid program that brings in business regularly. Think about having a thousand people out there promoting your product or service. Many merchants do just that through their program. It’s one of the best uses of the Internet.
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