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1. Why Start Your Own Affiliate Program?
Multiple web sites and distributors selling your product can result in increased
sales and profits. Unlike conventional advertising, affiliate programs pay only
for performance. Commissions are not paid out unless sales are made.
Also, with many more web sites linking to yours, your link popularity is sure
to increase in search engines, resulting in additional traffic and income.
2. Combine a Merchant Account with Your Affiliate Program
If your product is downloadable (such as electronic books or software), you
might consider ClickBank.com. For a $49.95 initial fee, you can process credit
cards and on-line cheques for $1.00 per transaction plus 7.5% of sales. As an
added bonus, you have your own built-in affiliate program.
ClickBank gives you a listing on their web site and visitors can buy your products
and join your affiliate program. You choose the commission rate you are willing
to pay. All commission payments are handled by ClickBank. One downside is that
you can't run a two-tiered program.
To learn more about ClickBank affiliate programs, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/cbap.html
3. Use an Affiliate Program Script
If you are comfortable with running CGI scripts, you may wish to install your
own affiliate program on your server and administer the affiliate program yourself.
Be forewarned, though, that this is a lot of work. You will be responsible
for all the testing, security, commission payments, promotion and so on. Another
downside: Will your potential affiliates trust you since their commissions are
not tracked and paid by an independent third party?
You will find an example of an affiliate script program at http://www.simpleaffiliate.com/s.cgi?index-12422
4. Use a Hosted Solution
There are good reasons for not hosting your affiliate program on your server.
Perhaps you don't have the time to administer all the aspects of an affiliate
program. Maybe your time could be used more productively in other areas of your
business. Additionally, an independent third party tracking and paying affiliate
commissions inspires confidence in prospective affiliates. Finally, you just
might benefit from the additional exposure that an affiliate network brings
you.
ClixGalore.com is an example of an affiliate network. You will need to pay
a $75.00 deposit to cover affiliate commissions. They charge 25% of any affiliate
commissions paid. For example, if you paid an affiliate a 10% commission on
a $100.00 sale, you would pay the affiliate $10.00 and ClixGalore $2.50.
With ClixGalore, you can also have a two-tier program. Taking the above example,
if you paid affiliates for finding other affiliates, you might pay 2% on your
second tier. That would be another $2.00 commission and $ .50 affiliate network
fee for a total of $15.00 in commissions on both levels.
To learn more about ClixGalore affiliate network, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/clixgalore.html
5. For All Affiliate Programs
Setup your own web page (or pages) outlining the benefits of your affiliate
program. Offer articles, suggestions, text and banner links, and other useful
support for your affiliates.
Offer a generous commission so that others feel motivated to sell for you.
Obtain the e-mail addresses of your affiliates so that you can keep in touch
with them to aid them to sell more.
For increased traffic, sales and profits, start your own affiliate program.
For more information about affiliate programs, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/affiliate.html
About the Author:
J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., http://www.popeconsultinginc.com/
has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty years.
For more valuable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit: http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/
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