7
- SETTING UP AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM
(Part 3 of 3):
You did
start with PART
ONE, I hope?...
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AVOID THESE MISTAKES IN
SETTING UP YOUR PROGRAM!:
This
list of typical affiliate
program problems (from the
point of view of the
affiliate) is taken from Allan
Gardyne's excellent newsletter
from AssociatePrograms.com
(sign up and refer to archived
issues at http://www.associateprograms.com/search/newsletter
.shtml - it's not just
for affiliates):
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--No
affiliate
contract
--Specific
information missing from the
contract
--Inconsistent
information (webpages differing from
contract)
--Referral
tracking system not explained
(method, length of time)
--Typos! - if
you don't have it all proofread, you
look sloppy
--No obvious
link to the affiliate program page
(if you intended one, that is)
--No FAQ for
affiliates
--No name and
physical address of the company
revealed
--No privacy
statement assuring affiliates that
their names/addresses won't be
revealed
--Website not
easily navigable
--Graphics on
website not optimized (i.e., it
loads too slowly)
--No ALT tags
defined (so graphics links can be
"read" if page loads slowly or
people are surfing with graphics
turned off)
--Banner sizes
not stated in bytes; small buttons
not offered (for people who are
minimizing their site's graphics
load)
--Use of HTML
coding that's not viewable by all
browsers (HTML 3.2 is universally
acceptable)
--Affiliates not
kept informed of important changes
(e.g., of changed webhosts)
To this,
I would add...
--No
aggressive anti-spam policy (your
company's reputation is at stake!)
--No (simple) text links
provided
--Sign-up
forms
set up for U.S. only (must choose a
state, a 5-digit "zip code", a tax ID,
etc.) even though program accepts
people from other countries
--Excessively long payment
periods or large minimum payment
levels
--Reducing
commissions/increasing minimum payment
levels after the program has been
advanced by the efforts of the early
affiliates
...Which
leads us nicely into this advice,
posted in the same ezine in March 2000
by an experienced affiliate, touching
on the biggest mistake of all...
"Treat
affiliates
with respect. Webmasters and
ezine writers talk among each other
frequently. One bad experience
will be broadcast through a large
network of individuals."
Affiliates know they are company
assets... yet many affiliate companies
treat affiliates merely as a resource
to be used.
Acknowledging,
fostering
a strategic partnership with
your affiliates will quickly reward
both of you. The more you can
help your affiliates achieve their
best success, the greater your own
success will be.
EXPERT
GUIDES TO SETTING UP AN AFFILIATE
PROGRAM:
Much of
the work involved in preparing to set
up, and setting up, an affiliate
program stems from your own lack of
knowledge. With this primer
you've started to improve on that
situation. To go forth even more
confidently into the fray, you may
wish to avail yourself of some more
advanced help.
If you only
choose one source for that help, I'd
recommend Neil Durrant's free e-book,
Creating
and Managing a Profitable
Affiliate Program.
Neil has interacted with many
affiliate program managers, both
expert and floundering, over many
years. His book covers all the
questions that may crop up in your
decision-making along the way...
Some
highlights: Does size really
matter? Choosing the right model
for your business. Affiliate
payment options. Tracking
solutions. Identifying all your
niches. Creating banners.
Offering free reports via
auto-responder (as Neil does
below). Interactive content and
personalization technology. How
to get the edge on your competitors
even without beating their
commissions. Recruiting and
activating affiliates.
Cross-promotions. Generating
free publicity. Creating a
"fast-start" training guide for your
affiliates. How to best test
your marketing. Recruiting a
Program Manager. Worksheets.
...And a case study on planning and
implementing a program.
There's another
(more recent) book that will be of
interest to you: A
Practical Guide to Affiliate
Marketing: Quick Reference for
Affiliate Managers
& Merchants,
by experienced industry commentator
and advocate Evgenii ("Geno")
Prussakov. I would suggest
checking out the glowing testimonials
on Amazon, from new as well as
experienced affiliate programs
managers and merchants who found great
help and ideas in this handy book.
(You might also wish to look
into Geno's bio and blogs, accessible
via the Amazon page as well - a very
interesting, stand-up guy.)
HELP
YOURSELF BY HELPING YOUR AFFILIATES:
Just
as affiliates can further their own
interests by helping their
sub-affiliates to succeed, you can
do much to magnify your own success
by helping your affiliates to
produce great websites (or other
marketing efforts). You might
review "HELP
YOUR SUB-AFFILIATES FOR GREATER
PROFIT" in the primer
section "How
to
Get the Most Out of Your
Affiliate Programs"
for ideas
that you could also pursue.
First, establish a
useful means of communicating with
your affiliate partners...
If you don't have a
"hands-on" type of affiliate program,
create a way to discover them.
I'm thinking of the popularity, for
digital authors (of e-books, private
sites, software, etc.), of using ClickBank...
which
does the affiliate program handling,
and in which case you might not ever
find out who your intended affiliates
are until they make a sale.
An excellent way to
"gather in" your ClickBank affiliates
is to use a script called EasyClickMate...
if
your webhost allows you to access your
CGI bin (most do). The script is
pretty inexpensive (and one-time cost,
with free upgrades); and if you don't
want to fiddle around with the script,
you can opt for a small setup fee to
have it done for you. For your
affiliates' sake, it gives them a URL
that isn't obviously an affiliate link
(especially important if they don't
get the link directly from
ClickBank's site, where it's "masked")
- and for your sake, the link goes to
your
website (which is good for your
search engine ranking). It also
allows you to collect a list of the
people who you can now regard as
"your" affiliates. It even sends
a confirmation email with promotional
tools to the affiliate. It
also
collects your affiliates' locations,
if you wish - which can come in handy
for pinpointing affiliates who might
help you with marketing specifically
in other countries. Other
sophisticated features allow you to
manage multiple products on multiple
websites with one ClickBank account -
and to give your affiliates links to
those specific pages within your
site/s.
And if you don't
have access to your CGI bin?
Perhaps at least you can set up a
webform to collect your affiliate's
name, email address, and ClickBank
ID. (If you don't have the means
or desire to do this yourself, FreedBack.com
provides an easy way to set up a
webform and send the data to you via
email.)
Once
you know who your affiliates are,
what do you want to say to
them? Here is an article that
gives some excellent ideas on
that: How
to
Develop a Communications Strategy
for Your Affiliates, by Jason
Ciment.
You
can help your affiliates (and your
bottom line) measurably by giving
them the benefit of your in-house
experience...
Let
them know which banners and text
links work best (and in what
context, especially). If you
have some super-affiliates who are
doing extremely well for you,
showcase them in a newsletter to the
others... Not only do they
deserve the attention, but the
others can learn a great deal from seeing
what is working on someone else's
site.
If
you aren't going to do it yourself,
consider providing graphics for your
affiliates to create links
from... Do you have different
products? - give them product
shots. Maybe only one or two
out of your line are of interest to
them - always give affiliates
"wiggle room". (Hmm, how about
a reward for a good design
suggestion? Banners aren't the
backbone of sales, but some are
used, and many can be improved.)
What
else might your affiliates benefit
from? ...Well, ask them! It
might be very useful to survey your
affiliates about their needs from
time to time (and revealing!).
You'll find out what the spread of
sophistication levels is as well as
pinpoint specific areas to target in
your future newsletters and the
like.
You might
also consider encouraging your
sub-affiliates to avail themselves of
useful software you like. If
it has an affiliate program, sign up
as an affiliate yourself to get a
commission... Or you could give
them a rebate of your commission - or
even purchase it for them
(you might be able to purchase resale
rights from the software company, as
Ken Evoy did with The Ultimate Ad
Tracker).
I
think you will learn many
useful things from this article from
the Internet Marketing Chronicles
newsletter, "Secrets
of Advertising 'In Context'"...
that is, in the context of your
affiliates' websites. There
are many excellent ideas here about
how to integrate your own
advertising into individual websites
to make it more "seamless"... more
apt to be interesting to site
visitors rather than repellant
simply by virtue of overtly being an
"ad". This includes advice on
how to make your own banners more
attractive, even unto making them
look less like a typical
banner and more like text in a
site. Also touched on is the
type of site that pulls better for
sales of any kind - that which is
geared to the whole concept
of selling. Lastly, you can
focus on ways to keep your
affiliates actively marketing for
you - some are listed here.
This is advice from someone who
has "walked the walk"... It
might make all the difference in
ensuring your success.
Then, why
not encourage your affiliate partners
to do the kinds of things you
do?
...Like
surveying their customers
about your service or product.
Helping their affiliates, if
you offer a multi-tiered
program. Automating (you are
doing a lot of this, aren't
you?). Pre-selling.
Testing. (...But not too much of
this too fast! That simply gets
overwhelming. Give them time to
work on one or two improvements at a
time - and
really
facilitate their efforts... That'll
get
'em going!)
SHOULD
YOU WORRY ABOUT YOUR INACTIVE
AFFILIATES?:
Well,
certainly you should worry about them
some... After
all, the more that are inactive, the
less effective your affiliate team is
on the whole. ...But the positive
angle is - the more room there is for
improvement!
Truly
helping your affiliates will
improve your bottom line. And
there's no reason why you can't get
that typical "80/20" percentage (or
more like 90/10, as it really tends to
be with affiliate marketing) honed
well down. But there are a
number of reasons why you'll have an
inactive cadre, some of which you can
probably influence, and some of which
you can't...
Some people
will sign up for your program and then
decide that it isn't a good fit for
them...
If they
can't evaluate the program itself
before signing up, that's your
fault. You should make sure that
all of the points of interest are laid
out understandably on your site -
don't leave it to the annoying
legalese of your affiliate contract to
divulge what everyone wants to
know! You should also make sure
that you provide what most affiliates
need in the way of HTML links,
statistics, and affiliate support
services.
Beyond
those things that you have control
over, though, there's reality...
Many of your affiliate sign-ups will
come when people are still in the
midst of setting up their
websites. The creative juices
are still flowing, folks are always
learning more about how to tune their
sites, new promotional ideas are
always headed their way, and their
private lives are forever
evolving... Things change!
If someone
isn't trying, don't worry about
them; that's life. It's the
people who are trying and
still not succeeding who you might
have a good effect on... if you give
them some good pointers, as we
discussed in the last section.
...Assume
that there will be a certain
portion who you don't have to worry
about; and be patient with the others!
- it often takes awhile to put good
advice into effect (I can tell you
from the affiliate's experience).
But will
your efforts pay off? Yes!,
incrementally... Meanwhile,
don't forget to help your top
affiliates do even better!
And may I wish you
the very best of luck?
- I
do!
Copyright February 2000 and onward.
All rights reserved.
"The Affiliate
Marketing Primer"
www.AffiliatePrimer.com
You
have
permission to LINK to this report
from any website, email message,
or ezine.
Please do not COPY it or portions
of it without seeking permission.
Thank you.
Sherry Gordon
Chapter
7 updated 1/2010
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Viral
Marketing Strategies
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Affiliate Program
Merchants (and
Others)
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Practical
steps you can take to
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