How To Set Up An Affiliate Program For Your Products
If you're looking to expand the sales of your products, then it's a good idea to think about using affiliates to sell them for you. So, if you want to know how to set up an affiliate program for your products, here's a short guide to the basics, to help you get started.
But first, before you can set up an affiliate program for your products, you need to decide whether to create and run it yourself, or whether to put your products on an affiliate website, where would be affiliates can be offered the chance to promote them.
If you run your own affiliate program , as well as running your main online business, then, obviously, you'll have quite a bit of work on your hands. But, so long as you've scheduled the time and are happy with your workload, that's great.
You'll certainly find a lot of satisfaction in using the affiliate program to increase the success of your online business.
Now, before you even start looking for affiliates, the first thing you need to do is to take a good look at your website and make sure it's all working and free from any errors or mistakes.
If you're looking to find your own top quality affiliates who will happily promote your site, they will expect it to look good and they are likely to be turned off by errors in its operation, or lack of attention to presentation.
So, make sure your site is top class, before you start. Obviously, this will benefit your own sales anyway.
To start finding affiliates yourself, you need to identify which websites you think are suitable to sell your product. This is an important step, because it's your chance to make sure that your product isn't demeaned by being sold on an unsuitable or poor quality site
What you're really looking to end up with, is a list of good quality sites with a similar market basis, that may be willing to advertise your product.
Then, to capitalize on this research, you'll need a good sales pitch to put to each one. So, take the time to create a sales letter that the site owner will find interesting and compelling. This is your first and only opportunity to get a yes from them.
Make sure you include all your selling points, commission details and other affiliate information, so they can easily see why they should market your product. Then check it for mistakes, several times. Or get someone else to read it for you. It's amazing how often you can miss a spelling mistake over and over again.
Along with recruiting your affiliates, you'll need to check out affiliate program software available to track and run your affiliate program. If you search the internet for affiliate program software, you'll come up with lots of choices, like Osiaffiliate.com
You'll find monthly program fees from about $30/month, which will cover all the admin necessary.
There is a major advantage when you set up and run a affiliate program for your products, yourself, and that's the additional control you get over the selling of your products.
Running your own affiliates gives you complete control over who you choose as affiliates and where and when their adverts are displayed. So again, you can make sure that the perceived quality of your product is maintained.
Now, if you're not so bothered about maintaining control and you just want the easiest affiliate marketing route, then just put your product on an affiliate directory website like Paydotcom or Clickbank.
Thousands of people look for affiliate offers on these and similar sites, so if you've a saleable product and a good commission offer, people will take it and advertise it for you.
A great advantage of many of these affiliate sites, is that they handle all the admin and payments for you. So, although they may charge a flat monthly fee for their service, providing you're making more in nett sales, you overall profit is increasing, for no effort on your part, once you register your product.
And lastly, again to make sure you stay in profit, take care to note the different commission bases on different sites. When you're starting out and don't have any sales statistics to work on, it's always safest to opt for a pay per sale commission basis.
But first, before you can set up an affiliate program for your products, you need to decide whether to create and run it yourself, or whether to put your products on an affiliate website, where would be affiliates can be offered the chance to promote them.
If you run your own affiliate program , as well as running your main online business, then, obviously, you'll have quite a bit of work on your hands. But, so long as you've scheduled the time and are happy with your workload, that's great.
You'll certainly find a lot of satisfaction in using the affiliate program to increase the success of your online business.
Now, before you even start looking for affiliates, the first thing you need to do is to take a good look at your website and make sure it's all working and free from any errors or mistakes.
If you're looking to find your own top quality affiliates who will happily promote your site, they will expect it to look good and they are likely to be turned off by errors in its operation, or lack of attention to presentation.
So, make sure your site is top class, before you start. Obviously, this will benefit your own sales anyway.
To start finding affiliates yourself, you need to identify which websites you think are suitable to sell your product. This is an important step, because it's your chance to make sure that your product isn't demeaned by being sold on an unsuitable or poor quality site
What you're really looking to end up with, is a list of good quality sites with a similar market basis, that may be willing to advertise your product.
Then, to capitalize on this research, you'll need a good sales pitch to put to each one. So, take the time to create a sales letter that the site owner will find interesting and compelling. This is your first and only opportunity to get a yes from them.
Make sure you include all your selling points, commission details and other affiliate information, so they can easily see why they should market your product. Then check it for mistakes, several times. Or get someone else to read it for you. It's amazing how often you can miss a spelling mistake over and over again.
Along with recruiting your affiliates, you'll need to check out affiliate program software available to track and run your affiliate program. If you search the internet for affiliate program software, you'll come up with lots of choices, like Osiaffiliate.com
You'll find monthly program fees from about $30/month, which will cover all the admin necessary.
There is a major advantage when you set up and run a affiliate program for your products, yourself, and that's the additional control you get over the selling of your products.
Running your own affiliates gives you complete control over who you choose as affiliates and where and when their adverts are displayed. So again, you can make sure that the perceived quality of your product is maintained.
Now, if you're not so bothered about maintaining control and you just want the easiest affiliate marketing route, then just put your product on an affiliate directory website like Paydotcom or Clickbank.
Thousands of people look for affiliate offers on these and similar sites, so if you've a saleable product and a good commission offer, people will take it and advertise it for you.
A great advantage of many of these affiliate sites, is that they handle all the admin and payments for you. So, although they may charge a flat monthly fee for their service, providing you're making more in nett sales, you overall profit is increasing, for no effort on your part, once you register your product.
And lastly, again to make sure you stay in profit, take care to note the different commission bases on different sites. When you're starting out and don't have any sales statistics to work on, it's always safest to opt for a pay per sale commission basis.
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