Getting the Most from Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is a good way to earn revenue and get your products out there but it can be a bit hit or miss. With several large affiliate networks and stark competition between sites doing the same kind of business, you really need to make sure that your affiliate management is up to specs and that your selected partners are bringing in customers. But if you can, affiliate marketing is all about the benefits! Low upfront costs, no staff requirements, performance-based payments and, best of all free inbound traffic! Here are a few tips for making the most out of affiliate marketing.

Choose the Right Affiliate Network(s)

An affiliate network is the basis of your whole marketing campaign. Basically an affiliate network acts as an intermediary between yourself and your publishers (affiliates). It gives you important statistics about the actual traffic and purchases done on your site while offering the affiliate a share of any purchase (or a lump sum). The affiliate network is important as it allows you quick access to relatively trustworthy publishers that you can further select your affiliates from. The disadvantage is that many of your competitors will likely be using affiliate networks as well.

Get a Good Affiliate Manager

A good manager is worth his weight in gold. Affiliate management is no easy task and it is up to the manager to whip it into shape.  The Manager can help you with a lot of different things, ranging from choosing the demographics for your offers to targeting your products through the right people. Simply put, he or she is there t o make life easier for your partners, whom he should also be coordinating.

Choose the right Publishers

It is vital that you do not approve just any potential affiliate. Careful scrutiny for every potential associate should be the norm. Think about it this way: In an older business model the closest thing to an associate would be a sales representative. Use the same type of scrutiny that you would be using for a sales rep for selecting your partners. Your affiliate manager can take it from there.
With its low up front costs and low maintenance, a well run affiliate program can turn around a business or help a small business get off the ground. But any program should be professionally run and managed and carefully handled or it will go wrong and you’ll end up spending a lot of money for nothing.