How To Start An Affiliate Program For Your Website
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David
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February 20th, 2012
Starting an affiliate program is a great way to market your products or services to a market that you may not have had the resources to market to. There are many different ways to manage an affiliate program such as in-house affiliate program or going to one of the large affiliate networks.
The information below will hopefully assist you with finding the potential value of starting an affiliate program. At first you may be hesitant but unlike other advertising methods such as pay per click advertising, you only pay if a sale is made rather than someone just clicking on a link to your website.
What Is An Affiliate Program
An affiliate program is a program that will allow other people to link to your website using a link that's setup specifically for them. When this link is clicked a cookie is written to the computer of the person now visiting your website.
If that person completes a purchase you agree to pay that affiliate a specified percentage of the sale. How you manage the affiliate program is completely up to you but it's important to consider all of your options because once you've setup an affiliate program it's not recommended that you change providers.
How To Start An Affiliate Program For Your Website
This step is sort of difficult considering the budget that you're most likely on. You can go with an in-house affiliate program by installing a program on your website but there are disadvantages to this that I'll cover later in the article.
You can also select an affiliate network which manages your affiliate program by paying affiliates, tracking sales, etc. The problem that you'll run into with this method is the upfront costs involved.
Affiliate Program Networks
An affiliate network is a website / company that manages the tracking and payment details of your affiliate program. They are very popular because affiliates can track all of their affiliate campaigns from one place rather than having 100 different websites to log into.
The other benefit of going with an affiliate network is that most affiliate programs have a minimum amount that needs to be in their account before a company will send them a check. Using an affiliate network allows affiliates to accumulate earnings from many different websites and therefore accumulate enough to be paid monthly.
With this in mind, it's much easier to build a list of affiliates for your program by going through and affiliate network.
Now the disadvantages, the biggest obstacle that you'll probably run into is the setup cost. Companies like Commission Junction require setup fees in the thousands plus they require a large initial deposit that stays in reserve to ensure that you have the funds to pay your affiliates each month.
There is a company called ShareASale.com that sort of focuses on smaller businesses because you can have an affiliate program up and running for about $600 including your initial deposit.
In-House Affiliate Programs
The idea of an in-house affiliate program is that you manage everything in regards to tracking and paying your affiliates. This is generally done using some sort of affiliate program software.
A popular piece of software is iDevDirect because they have functionality that allows you to use SEO related URLs so in addition to building your affiliate program your getting valuable links to your website to build your link popularity.
A disadvantage for using an in-house affiliate program is the additional bookkeeping involved with making your monthly payouts.
The main disadvantage is the ability to acquire new affiliates. Generally if you run an in-house affiliate program you'll only get affiliates that are familiar with your product or service. Paying to be included in an affiliate network exposes your program to thousands and thousands of new affiliates that may not be familiar with your website.
Marketing Your Affiliate Program
There are quite a few ways to market your new affiliate program but the best exposure that money can buy is through a forum called ABestWeb.com. They offer the ability to post your new affiliate program in their 'new affiliate program' section.
The fee may have changed so I recommend taking a look at the site and check out the current rate. This will get you a bunch of publicity plus as you answer questions your affiliate program will be bumped to the top so if you can keep on top of the forum you can keep bumping your program to the top to get additional exposure that you wouldn't have received.
Some other options are by sending out a newsletter of your new affiliate program or simply issuing a press release. You can find options for free press releases but as normal, you get what you pay for but any free exposure is definitely worth it.
Webmaster Forum
I invite you to visit my webmaster forum, it's a great place to discuss websites and ask questions to fellow webmasters regarding topics that you may still have questions on.