4 Tips
For An Effective Affiliate Program
4 Tips For An Effective Affiliate Program
1. What Is an Affiliate Management Program and Why Do
You Need One?
Affiliate management programs allow you to effectively operate
your affiliate program and the partnerships formed through it. You
need effective affiliate management to ensure the highest ROI possible
for all of your partnerships. Amazon.com is the poster child for
a hugely successful affiliate management program. How did they do
it? By using a robust affiliate management program and providing
powerful tools and training to their affiliates.
2. Where Can You Find an Effective Affiliate Management
Program?
Of course, Amazon’s affiliate management program, code is
proprietary, so you won’t be able to get your hands on that,
but you CAN get one. Then, just how can you get your own affiliate
management program? It’s simple, they’re everywhere.
If you type the phrase “affiliate management program”
into your favorite search engine, you’ll see a plethora of
returned search results. Don’t despair just yet; I’m
going to tell you just what to look for in an effective affiliate
management program.
But for now, you must decide if it’s more of a benefit for
you to buy and install an off-the-shelf software package on your
server, or to pay for a hosted service, even if you have the expertise
to easily install your own program. Does the boxed version do everything
you need it to do? Is the price right? (Only you can decide that.)
3. Things to Look for In an Affiliate Management Program
Your affiliate management program should allow you to track your
affiliates’ progress, train them, contact them individually,
and even make special arrangements with them (partnerships). A quality
affiliate management program should immediately give you the information
you need about your affiliates at a glance.
You should instantly be able to see who your best performing affiliates
are and which ones are struggling. In this case, use the tools in
your affiliate management program to email an automated training
series to the affiliates who are having difficulty, or offer more
personalized help. The choice is yours. On the flip-side of that,
you can offer your best performers better incentives to keep the
sales coming. Does your current affiliate management program allow
you to do this?
4. What Are Multi-tiered Affiliate Management Programs
A multi-tiered affiliate management program is one that not only
pays your affiliates commissions on the sales they make, but it
also allows them to recruit others and make a percentage of their
sales as well. Multi-tiered affiliate management programs are structured
somewhat like MLM programs.
They allow the top person to make a percentage of the sales of
everyone else whom they recruit. Some affiliate programs go as deep
as 5 levels, but these normally don’t live up to expectations.
It’s like, “each one – teach one. The person directly
above is responsible for the success of the person directly beneath
them.
Two-tiered affiliate management programs usually work best for
this. They are the most effective, as others don’t pay as
well on the 1st and 2nd levels (tiers) as the 2-tier affiliate management
programs.
Affiliate management programs that stretch beyond 2 levels may
place the highest commission percentage to be earned on the lower
levels – which are usually not filled. This prevents the affiliates
from making the max commissions on their sales. It also provides
little incentive for affiliates to keep promoting your product/service.
Therefore, for the best results I strongly recommend you use a
two-tier affiliate management program if you’re thinking of
implementing a multi-tiered affiliate management program. Better
yet, implement an affiliate management program that gives you the
flexibility to offer a flat affiliate program, a 2-tiered affiliate
program, or no program at all to your affiliates.
Look for an affiliate management program that's part of a package,
or e-business suite. The package or suite should be a synergistic
combination of e-business tools that you effectively manage and
see the results of your efforts.
For instance, you should be able to view your affilliates' stats,
ads, and progress, etc. Don't make it harder that it has to be.
Let the tools do the work for you by choosing the right tools upfront.
So, you need a combination of powerful tools that automatically
run and manage your affiliate program for you.
Offer your affiliates a chance to earn commissions, even recurring
commissions through your affiliate management program. Let your
affiliate program do the tracking and expense calculations. You
benefit by instantly seeing which ads produce the best results for
you, and which ones you need to toss. Then, everyone's happy - you
and your affiliates!
Thanks for reading, and much success to you in your online endeavors!
About the Author Ettione Stuckey has
a passion for ecommerce and Internet Marketing. He understands the
science and application of ecommerce technology and concepts. Benefit
from his efforts and learn more about affiliate management at http://prowebware.com/affiliate_management.html
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