Your affiliates are the back-bone of your Internet based business. They are your true sales force. But, unlike in the off-line world, they don’t get paid by the hour; they get paid for the sales they make.

It is often published on the web that 95% of all affiliate marketers do not make any money.

Why?

The quickest way to achieve high-volume sales on the web is to set up your own affiliate program.

The single most important factor in a successful affiliate program is to make your affiliates your equal partners by paying 50% commissions. Let them see that it is in their interests to promote yours.

OK, so you have just finished putting together your Website and you are ready to start making some money. You heard about affiliate programs and how they are an excellent way to make some extra income from your Website. So you join a few, post some banners on your site, but you really don’t see many sales.

As an affiliate your primary goal is to make a commission on the sale of a product you are re-selling.

Online sales from the corporate web site not all you had hoped for? Is the site barely holding its own even though you’ve paid top dollar for a good design, your best copy writers generated the text, and a search engine guru managed to get you decent rankings in the search engine war?

You hear the success stories and you see the potential for earning an income on the internet. Mistake number one to avoid is jumping in and joining a bunch of affiliate programs, then picking up the services and software that you’re told you need for marketing, here and there, willy-nilly, spending way too much money, and then making your-self crazy keeping it all straight and trying to make it all work together. Do yourself a favor and do some research. Then make a plan. Fail to plan = plan to fail!

If you earn money from affiliate programs, you could be losing up to 30% of your income. That is a commonly quoted statistic for the rate of affiliate link hijacking.

Why does this happen?

Well, what would you do when faced with a link like this:

http://www.leaddogbiz.com/cgi-bin/t.cgi/your-number

One of the secrets to a successful online home based business is capturing your visitors’ email address so you can contact them again and again. The most effective way to capture email addresses is by offering a free newsletter, free email course or free ebook.

For affiliates, capturing the email address is a bit more difficult, but certainly no less important.

If you resell products or services on your web site this is done through affiliate links. Quite often your visitor comes to your site, clicks an affiliate link and leaves; perhaps never to return again.

You MISS capturing the email address!

Why do you join affiliate programs?

Is it because you like the product you are re-selling?

Face it – no one needs another affiliate program to join and making yours successful requires standing out from the crowd.

1. Do not offer an affiliate program at all when starting to market a product.
Start by testing your copy and direct marketing strategies, generating satisfied customers and building your e-zine subscriber base. Do not even mention planning an affiliate program at all in your e-zine or anywhere else before you launch it. This will help you retain a feeling of exclusivity later on.

2. Offer the partnership program to your customers and subscribers first, without advertising it anywhere else.
Start when you generate at least 1000 satisfied customers and 2000 e-zine subscribers. Send them an e-mail explaining how you are now ready to prerelease your marketing partnership program (do not call it an affiliate program – it will help you look different), but only to the first 25 people that qualify. The small number of available slots and the exclusivity will increase the perceived value of the program and help it achieve its USP. Treat your program like a small marketing circle of a closed group of partners and tell them so.

I often receive emails in my inbox asking me to join new affiliate programs. In fact, I probably receive about 20 such emails every week.

What should you do when you receive offers to join a new affiliate program?

Chances are you’ve heard at least a little – maybe a lot – about “viral marketing”… Whereby one process you set up is taken up by other people without your having to work much at it. Less work and exponential growth… cool! But let’s talk about how it applies to affiliate marketing…

For affiliates running their own web site or thinking of starting their own web site the following web design tips should help you convert more visitors into sales.

Most affiliates get sales from the respective affiliate programs they belong to by selling directly to visitors.

But what about the 2nd Tier?

A successful affiliate program can skyrocket your sales. Your company can grow very fast. The following tips can help you to develop a successful affiliate program: