Starting an Affiliate Program: Plan Beforehand
It’s true that starting an affiliate program has many benefits, such as increased sales and a source of passive income. While one may be eager to start an affiliate program of their own, they should take time before they do. It’s important to put careful thought and consideration into the process before jumping in feet first.
Affiliate programs are relatively easy and inexpensive to start. With just a few clicks of your mouse, anyone can start their own affiliate program. However easy they are to start, they still take time to build and grow into success. By starting with a solid foundation, the ease of building that foundation will be more.
Again, it can be so easy to start an affiliate program that many may be tempted to slap a few articles together and call it an ebook, just to have a product for affiliates to sell. Instead, anyone thinking this way should step back and take the necessary time to develop a good product. If a product is of poor quality, it will be hard to recruit affiliates and the ones that do sign up will have a hard time promoting it.
Once a product has been created, the owner should attempt to sell it themselves first. This will give the an idea of how well (or not so well) the product will convert. Some affiliates specifically look for a product with a high conversion rate. If the conversion rate seems low altering the product a little to increase the conversion rate just may help.
Taking the time to sell ones own product before beginning an affiliate program will also give product owners time to develop ads, articles, and other tools that affiliates can use to increase the sale of the product once the program is opened to others.
Another thing that will only help make a new affiliate program stronger is to research the different types and details of other programs. For instance, will the program be managed by the product owner or will their be an designated affiliate manager? Will the program be conducted through a company such as Clickbank or will it do better with a script installed on the owners own server? Researching programs such as WahmCart.com and 1ShoppingCart.com will help the owner set up a program that works best for them and their future affiliates.
A product owner will also need to answer the following questions before opening shop. How much commission will affiliates receive? What payment method will be put in place? Will there be multiple tiers put into place in order to help gain more affiliates? All of these questions should be answered before starting any affiliate program. Otherwise, owners and managers may find themselves overwhelmed very quickly.
Product owners will also want to take the time to build an affiliate resource center and fill it with training materials and promotional tools and resources. Affiliate programs tend to attract a wide range of affiliates with an even wider range of affiliate marketing knowledge, therefore the program should cater to newbies as well as seasoned marketers.
Another step that can and should be taken before opening an affiliate program to the general public is recruiting a few super affiliates. A tip for those looking for affiliates ahead of time: Let them know the program is only open to a limited number of people for a set amount of time, giving them a headstart on promoting the product for anyone else.
All in all, planning ahead allows affiliate program owners to get a system in place and have everything working correctly before opening the doors and announce the new program. After all, it is better to get any snaggles fixed before the whole world knows about them.