Affiliate Programs
Affiliate Programs Sell Products AND Turn Websites Into Money Machines
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Find the Affiliate Programs The Match Your Website Content |
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Primer For Success
Since Amazon.com launched the first affiliate program 1996 on the Internet, the novel idea of affiliate marketing has emerged as one of the most economical and effective means of reaching customers online.
An April 1999 Forrester Research survey of marketing executives (Driving Site Traffic) ranked affiliate programs number one in effectiveness, ahead of e-mail, PR, television, and all other marketing methods.
What
Is An Affiliate Program?
An affiliate program works as follows: A merchant (say Amazon.com) pays a commission to a web site owner for generating sales from either a banner or link from the web site owner's site. The commissions are paid as either a flat fee, or a percentage of the transaction.
So any sites that sell physical products (books, toys, etc.) benefit from having affiliate programs where they pay you when their goods are purchased. Sites that have subscription models (ISPs, online communities, etc.) typically have bounty programs where they pay you a flat fee when someone you referred joins their service.
What Is the Future Of Affiliates
Programs?
According to a projection by Forrester Research in November 1998 (Resizing On-line Business Trade), the business-to-consumer market is projected to swell from $7.8 billion in 1998 to $108 billion in 2003. Further, business-to-business trade on the Internet will explode from $43 billion in 1998 to $1.3 trillion in 2003 - rising to 9.4% of business sales.
So if you want your company to participate in the meteoric rise of eCommerce in the coming years an affiliate program is a fundamental component in online success. Seven of the top ten shopping sites for September 1999, as ranked by Media Matrix, currently utilize affiliate programs.
Does An Affiliate Program Make Sense For
Me?
The short answer is that affiliate programs can work effectively for any company.
The slightly longer answer is that it just takes time, attention, and a bit of creativity to operate a successful program.
Bear in mind that any prospective affiliates will assess your company. Do you sell a great product at a competitive price? If not, your affiliate program is doomed. After all, most people will not sell a product they do not believe in themselves.
Also, you must make it easy and appealing to join and just as easy to stay up-to-date as an affiliate.
There are two ways to set up affiliate programs:
- 3rd Party Services - Services whereby the person or company pays a service to administer the associate program.
- Associate Program Software - Software that an a person or company buys, sets it up and does the administration themselves
- There are pros and cons to each.
- The negative of 3rd party is that since 3rd
party makes money affiliate programs they service, they
will have 300 to 500 programs. And since affiliates can
choose which program they promote, there is no guarantee
that it will be your program they will choose. The pro is
that you only need to supply the money in an account to
pay the affiliates and the 3rd party service does the
rest.
- The negative to buying software it that you will need the expertise administer it and server to run it on. The plus is that your associates program will be a stand alone program..you will not be competing against the stable of programs each of the 3rd party services offer.
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3rd Party Affiliate Services
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- Don't want to tackle affiliate software? Then do what thousands are doing, use one of these services.
- Commission Junction
- Link Share
- Click Bank
- These are the TOP 3 3rd party hosting services for
affiliate programs. If you want to join any affiliates
program, check them each out.
The third party solutions will handle the administration of the program, such as affiliate registration, commission tracking, and statistics. Beyond these services, you should keep your program fresh with a variety of banners and buttons, and frequent communications with your affiliates in the form of a newsletter and program updates.
Affiliate Software - A Hands On
Approach - Guarantees complete
control over promotions. They will be able to track every
banner, every link, every purchase - and know which ads
and promotions are making money, and which ones aren't,
thus allowing one keep the profitable ads, and stop the
non-profitable ones.
While there are a lot of software to choose from, the one I found that is surprising easy to use is AssocTrack. - CLICK HERE to see what Joe Malek has to say about this user friendly software package.
Affiliate programs are becoming more and more competitive in the growing eCommerce marketplace, so it is essential to research the competition. Affiliates will constantly measure you and your program against other affiliate programs.
The viability of affiliate programs has already been firmly established, but they cannot provide a magic solution for a company founded in a spotty business plan. What is the best type of company for an affiliate program? Well, if you are selling a quality product at a good price, then you are running the best type of company for an affiliate program.
