Using Affiliate Programs To Market Your Online Store

Probably one of the most challenging and time-consuming tasks associated with running your own business is marketing it. However, it’s also one of the most important. There are a lot of ways to do it but, for right now, let’s focus on just one aspect: Affiliate Marketing.

Affiliate marketing is, essentially, creating a team to do the marketing for you in exchange for a commission (classic win-win). It is generally considered a low-cost, low-risk form of marketing because you only pay when your affiliates bring about a desired action, such as a sale or new lead. A rundown of the process is that you create ads for your team to place on their websites, which they promote for you. They get a cut of the action, as it were, and the resulting exposure can mean increased traffic, page rank and sales for your site. It sounds easy enough, but it’s important to understand what goes into starting, and running, your own affiliate program.

There is a lot to consider before moving forward with your program: deciding on general policies, creating ads, whether to self-host or outsource, promoting, finding affiliates and keeping them satisfied. Let’s discuss each of these in order, starting with…

Policies:
This is a very important step, because it lays the groundwork for your entire program and is where you decide what you’ll allow your affiliate team to do and what you’ll restrict. Remember, this is your brand on the line and you want to be sure it’s represented to its best possible advantage. If you do not want your ads altered or your logo used other than as depicted in the ads you provide, say so. You may decide it’s OK to let your affiliates change the color or size of the ads to suit their site, if they’re so inclined. Again, make sure they know this. Placing all your terms and conditions up front lets your team know where you stand and gets everyone started off on the right foot.

Next, decide on the details for your payment policy, such as payout minimum and frequency. It can be costly to send out payments, so you would not want to send small amounts too often. You also would do good to not set your minimum too high; otherwise it could take several frustrating months for your team to receive their earnings. This is where you want to find a balance between managing your costs and keeping your team happy. A general rule of thumb here is a $25-50 minimum and a monthly or bi-monthly payment frequency, but you want to find what works best for your company’s situation.

Give some consideration to your acceptance policy. Do you intend to manually check each application out before accepting, or place it on automate and accept each one? There are pros and cons to both methods. Automation requires less effort on your part, and provides a larger audience for your ads (after all, what have you got to lose, right?), but would allow sites you might consider unsavory to hold your ads. Doing it manually is more time consuming, but allows you to handpick your team and limit the number to a select few, if that’s your preference.

If you’re already an affiliate yourself, or have looked at various programs to ‘study up’ on how they work, you may have noticed that there’s always a cookie duration involved. This refers to the timeframe allowed for tracking clicks/visits. The expiration ‘norm’ is about 60 days but you can go higher or lower, depending on your product. As a general rule of thumb, if your product is a high ticket item that a consumer may mull over for a while before deciding to purchase, it’s a good idea to set your cookie duration as high as 180 days or more.

Creating ads:
There are a number of ad-types used in affiliate marketing, known as ‘creatives’, the most common being text, banner and product links. Generally, these are in HTML or Javascript programming languages, though, in the case of product links, CSV or Excel files are used to create the data feeds that are used. If you are not familiar with these languages/tools, you may want to hire a programmer to ensure your creatives meet your standards. However, if you have current ads you want to use, or can design them yourself, you would only need to link them to your site and test them before making them available to future affiliates.

Give some thought to what you want these ads to say about your company and how much you’re willing to spend on making them. Consider offering a selection of various ads for your team to choose from. This ensures they can find one to fit their sites, which can make or break their decision to place one there in the first place.

Hosted VS. Self-Hosting:
There are many ways to go about running an affiliate program. You may decide to host and manage it yourself or to outsource to a company that does this for you and offers you an interface to work from. Each has their pros and cons, so it helps to weigh in your factors before making a choice.

Self-hosting your own program typically involves using management software you either purchase and download yourself, has been offered by your site’s host or possibly even included in your shopping cart system. The upfront costs are greater, if you’re purchasing your own, but once you have the software, you won’t have to pay for it again. The pro is that you are in complete control of your program, while the con is the other side of the same coin – you’re doing everything yourself!

Outsourcing means going to a third-party management provider, such as Commission Junction, Linkshare, ShareASale or Interneka. These companies manage your program, as well as connect you to affiliates by placing you in their directories. The pros are, obviously, the convenience factor and pre-made network. The con is that you pay for this service, with set-up fees ranging from as little as $75 to as much as $5000, maintenance fees in the form of monthly rates or percentages (based on the gross revenue of your affiliate sales) and possible listing fees.

No matter which method you choose, if you want to go large with your affiliate program, it may be necessary to hire a small staff of people to run it for you. The same is true if you have your hands full with the other tasks associated with running your business and cannot dedicate a lot of your own time to it.

Promoting:
There are many ways you can promote your program to attract quality affiliates. As stated above, using third-party providers is one, as you are included in a directory where they can find you! There are other -independent- directories that are worth taking advantage of, whether you go with a provider company or not. Among these are Affiliate Programs, Associate Programs, Affiliates Directory and Affiliate Scout. Some involve listing fees, while others are free. There are also services available to do multiple directory submissions for you, for a fee; one of these is Affiliate Announce.

You can promote your program on your own website, offering a link for either a contact form for your company, or to your page on a third-party provider site. Many companies do this and it is generally a successful tactic. E-zine articles can be useful in making your program seen, particularly if they’re aimed at the affiliate community. Writing a press release to announce your new affiliate program can attract a great deal of interest in it, as well. Get creative…there are many ways to get the word out.

When you start an affiliate program or sign up to a directory, it’s common practice to write a description of your company to go with your terms and conditions. This is a great opportunity to promote! Include everything you’d want to know as an affiliate and, if you have them available already, don’t leave out general stats for your site (sales, traffic, etc). You want to give potential candidates every reason to want to promote your product, so be thorough and make it as enticing as you can.

Finding Affiliates and Keeping Them Happy:
Finding affiliates to market your product isn’t as hard as it sounds – honestly. Provider services have a pre-made network but there are still steps you can take to building your own, especially useful if you’re taking the DIY approach. You may already know of some good websites or blogs that are related to your field and, if you don’t, you should become familiar with them and pick the ones you like most. Contacting these website owners directly about your program is often a great start to a mutually beneficial, professional relationship.

Ensuring your team stays satisfied is essential to maintaining a healthy relationship with them. You want to motivate your affiliates to keep promoting your product. Maintain contact with them; consider emailing them monthly newsletters with updates or industry news. Give them the opportunity to refresh their sites by offering promos and periodic or seasonal creatives for them to choose from. You can reward your top performers with bonuses or hold a contest – the affiliates with the highest commission in x amount of time win nice prizes.

As you can see, there is much to think about when starting your own affiliate program, not to mention the initial set-up process. Once everything’s in place, however, it’s more a question of maintenance and the benefits will far outweigh any cons. As the new sales roll in, you’ll be glad you got through it.