How to start affiliate marketing program

How to start affiliate marketing program
In this file, you can ref free useful materials about how to start affiliate marketing program and other
materials for how to start affiliate marketing program such as affiliate programs, affiliate tips…
If you need free ebook:
 Top 21 affiliate marketing programs
 Top 12 secrets to be successful in affiliate marketing
 Top 8 free affiliate marketing ebooks for beginners
pls visit: affiliatemarketingaz.com
I. Affiliate marketing guides
Before attending this Intelligent.ly class on affiliate marketing, I’ll admit I had never even heard the term
affiliate marketing before. However, Dan Marques, a Senior Online Marketing Manager at Reebok, and
wearer-of-many-hats in other ventures, gave us a general overview of affi liate marketing, and showed
us how to utilize it in our own businesses. Here is what I learned from this awesome class:
Affiliate Marketing 101 from Intelligent_ly
Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards its affiliates
for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. There are four
parties in affiliate marketing: the merchant (retailer, brand), the network (contains offers for the affiliate
and takes care of payments), the publisher (affiliate), and the customer
There are several major networks which are good to use, including ShareASale, Google Affiliate
Network, Linkshare and Commission Junction. Affiliate marketing programs have several pros/cons.
When using an affiliate marketing program, you are paying for performance, it’s quick and easy to
launch, it builds your online exposure, and it’s easy to measure ROI. However, it can be time consuming
to maintain, and there is a risk of fraud and negative brand exposure.
Pre-Launch Considerations:
Before launching your affiliate marketing program, there are several things you need to consider. First,
do you want to manage your program in-house, use network services or use an OPM (Outsource
program management)? Managing your program in-house gives you more control over your brand, but
is time consuming. Using network services or an OPM can save you time, but cost you money and give
you less control over how your brand is portrayed.
Performance review phrases comments/ free download examples Page 1

The next thing to consider is your payout method. Common methods include Cost per Action (sign up,
purchase), Cost Per Lead (email submission, quote submission), and Percentage of Sales (ecommerce).
Other pre-launch considerations:
 Consider your margin structure–don’t offer discounts you can’t afford to give out
 Look at the affiliate programs of your competitors
 Develop a search marketing policy, Trademark usage policy, loyalty/incentivized program policy,
and adware/spyware/CAN-SPAM Compliance policy for your publishers to abide by
 Create a policy stating how you will attribute your publishers with purchases, leads, etc.
 Make your policies easy to understand
Launch Checklist:
After launching your affiliate program, recruit publishers. Pay publishers for featuring your product, and
then remember to email them at periodically with brand updates, new discounts, etc. To recruit
publishers, reach out to them directly via forums, blogs, competitor mentions, the network, and SEO
rankings. Incentivize your publishers. Give them incentives for taking the first action (adding links to
their site), and incentives for their first order. Incentives to improve performance can be exclusive
content/offers, tiered payment structure, bonuses for reaching certain levels, increased payout for
increased exposure, special landing page, free products, and payment frequency.
When you’re looking to grow your affiliate program, remember the 90/10 rule. 90% of your affiliate
channel revenue comes from 10% of your publishers. Therefore, focus on improving your programs with
your 10% and those near your 10%. Other considerations upon launching your affiliate program:
 Start your commission structure low (it’s always easier to go up)
 Send a welcome email to your publishers, which includes contact information for your program
manager
 Add a link and page on your website to the affiliate program
 Put in place a policy for returns/cancelled/fraud orders
 Sign up for other affiliate programs to get an idea of how they work
Pitfalls to Avoid:
Avoid these common mistakes which can ruin your affiliate marketing program!
 Coupon/Deal Driven Program: If you run too many of these, you may be giving away discounts
you don’t need to. You may be cannibalizing conversions from your “upper funnel” affiliates and
you may be diluting your brand. For your program to be successful, diversify beyond
coupons/deals.

 Paying for Fraud/Refund/Canceled Orders: Don’t pay your publishers for fraudulent, refunded,
or canceled orders. Create a monthly process for reversing the commission on all these orders.
Automate this process if possible
 Beware the Mysterious Affiliate: If you don’t know what they are doing to drive traffic, don’t let
them into your affiliate program. If they seem suspicious (having an extremely high conversion
rate) ask them to explain their method. If you don’t like their answer, kick them out of your
program.
 Paying Upfront for Placements: Paying upfront never benefits you. You will almost never
generate enough revenue to cover the upfront cost. Instead, align your incentives with the
publishers. Increase their commission for the placement, or offer them a bonus if the placement
drive more orders
After reading through this overview, you’ll now have the foundation set in place to tackle your own
affiliate marketing program.
II. Affiliate marketingstrategies
Affiliate marketing is a low-cost
way for merchants to build
awareness and showcase their
products and services. The model
is simple; it works as a
commission-based referral
system. A partner or affiliate
markets a merchant's products
for a "piece of the pie."
Affiliate marketing experts often make an income that can tally over five figures
per month, however only 1 to 5% of thousands of marketers achieve this level.
When an affiliate reaches this elite level they are often referred to as a "super"
affiliate.
How does one become a super affiliate? Can anyone do it? Super affiliates have
common tactics that they embrace and put into place. Anyone can become a

super affiliate, but it will not come without blood, sweat, and a hefty time
commitment. The typical super affiliate possesses the following traits:
 Persistence
 Patience
 Thirst for Knowledge
These three traits combined with the following strategy gives you the formula for
the makings of a "super" affiliate.
1. Find a Unique Niche
The mistake that many affiliate marketing hopefuls have in common is that they
try to offer everything under the sun rather than focusing on a specific niche
market. Do not scatter your efforts, focus on your niche, promote it, and sell it
well.
2. Search Engine Marketing
Once you've built your affiliate storehouse you will need to promote it. Many
affiliates use pay-per-click engines. I suggest that you learn how to achieve organic
search results or hire a search engine marketing company. This will save you from
spending all your profits on pay-per-click engines. Only use pay-per-click engines
if you know what you are doing, otherwise all your profits may end in the hands of
Google Adwords or Overture.
3. Know Your Product, Know Your Audience
Create a resource. By taking the time to learn about the products and/or services
that you are offering you can create information that builds your credibility. That
credibility builds trust. If your viewers do not have trust in you more than likely
they will not purchase from your storehouse. If you want more information on the
psychological process that an online buyer goes through I suggest that you read
my article on the Five Levels of Internet Marketing and the Sales Process. This will
help you in creating a web site that converts well, which in return will increase
your cash flow.

4. Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
Promote products from different merchants. This way if you have a problem with
receiving payment from a merchant, or their products do not convert well the
effects on your business will be minimal. Watch out for exclusivity agreements;
remember this is your business. Protect yourself and diversify so that you do not
feel the famine effect if something goes wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong
with promoting niche products from different merchants.
5. Seek Knowledge and Embrace Change
If you are familiar with Internet marketing at all you know that what worked three
months ago may not work today. Stay on top of the trends. Seek knowledge, start
by learning something new about affiliate marketing daily. For example remember
those marketing tools called "banner" that use to drive sales at an astronomical
rate a few years ago? Well those banners developed a term called "banner
blindness." That means most online viewers will not click on banners even if they
do pertain to what they are looking for. To be a "super" affiliate you must always
spend time reading, learning, and embracing the changes in Internet marketing.
6. Don't Give Up
It's hard to do, and most of the time those dabbling in affiliate marketing give up
way too soon. Monitor your statistics, watch to see what is working and what is
not. Make changes when necessary. Do one thing daily to promote your storehouse
and be patient. Before you know it you will start getting payments.
Remember that it will not happen overnight. Encompass and develop the
persistence, patience, and knowledge. Then follow the tactics I've mentioned
above and you are on your way to becoming a "super" affiliate.

How to start affiliate marketing program

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How to start affiliate marketing program