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occasional gem makes the time taken well
worth your effort. Talk with successful
affiliates, find out what they are doing
to effectively promote your software, and
use that information to assist those
affiliates who are not as successful. Assist affiliates
in understanding your product; no one
knows your products like you do. For
affiliates to drive traffic that will
convert to sales, they need to understand
the benefits of the product they are
marketing. Once an affiliate knows the
product, they will be better able to act
as an extended sales force. In order for
the affiliate to make the effort, you
simply must support them!
Make
Communication Easy
Many 3rd
party affiliate-tracking programs notify
both the affiliate and merchant of a
sale. This can often be automated and
will create positive communication
between merchants and affiliates. Making
an affiliate's role easier will help them
increase earnings and further promote a
merchants site.
Provide
affiliates with great looking graphics
and sample text. Graphics that work best
are those that highlight your web site,
yet fit the look of an affiliate's web
site.
Newsletters
are another great way to get information
to affiliates. Include tips and specific
for affiliates, along with general
marketing advice that helps with site
promotion. If you are looking for
software to manage newsletters, I highly
recommend Group Mail -. http://tinyurl.com/23ljy
Affiliate
Taboos
An
affiliate generates a sale for a product
and the merchant promptly decreases the
commission. This sends a very negative
message to the affiliate, in many cases
they've taken a lot of time to place
links, promote products and because
they've driven effective traffic their
commission is decreased. If its necessary
to decrease a commission for whatever
reason, be sure to include a personal
note detailing the reason and letting the
affiliate know that you still support
their efforts.
A Cheat?
An
affiliate sale occurs, you go to their
website and don't find any links you
decide they must be cheating you! This
conclusion is simply a based on poor
communication and reporting. Many, many
affiliates have multiple sites, very few
affiliate tracking programs allow
affiliates to list multiple sites, and in
many cases the number of sites listed do
not accurately reflect the number of
sites owned and managed by the affiliate.
Additionally many affiliates manage
opt-in newsletters that may result in
sales, but links are not visible on a
website. An example of a popular ezine
often promoting affiliates is
Lockergnome!
Links,
Links, Links
Keep
your links valid! If you update a section
of the site or remove an offer provide a
redirect or retain the link saying that
such and such offer has expired and a new
one has replaced it. It seems a waste to
discard targeted traffic because a
special has expired. Be sure to
communicate with your affiliates, and if
a link will only be good for a specified
length of time tell them up front. When
an offer expires notify affiliates a week
prior to the expiration with a reminder.
This will give them ample time to make
any needed updates.
Added
Incentives!
Affiliates
love added bonuses for reaching goals or
specified levels of sales. Many of the
3rd party affiliate vendors run contests
and provide large incentives for their
top performing ones. Reward and praise
successful affiliates.
Affiliates
tend to be experts in other areas, which
relate to a merchants business;
therefore, by communicating useful
information, and helping affiliates
increase their earnings, they will give
added exposure and increase your sales.
Communicating with affiliates will
ultimately benefit visitors of both
sites. A little effort in the beginning
can mean big rewards in the long run.
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