How To Start An Affiliate Program
Updated: August 4, 2022 by Bill Burniece
Why Your Company Needs An Affiliate Program
- Affiliate Programs Are Extremely Profitable: Affiliate marketing is one of the most cost-effective methods to bring in additional sales. It’s like having your own virtual sales force – minus the costly benefits associated with one. You only pay affiliate after they make a sale so they are responsible for all of the marketing costs it takes to close online sales.
- A Huge New Income Stream: If you are not using affiliates to generate new sales for you, you’re leaving a large amount of revenue on the table for your competitors to earn. An affiliate program allows you to tap into an unlimited new income stream through sources of traffic and revenue that you are currently not getting.
- Increased Brand Awareness: Not only can affiliates drive new sales and revenue for you, but they’ll also boost your brand awareness by influencing remote areas of your vertical market that you’re currently not reaching directly.
- Valuable SEO Benefits: Most of your affiliates will send you sales by linking your website from their websites, social media properties and blogs. These links will greatly boost your SEO efforts bringing your website more valuable organic traffic.
- Massive Growth Potential: Affiliate marketing has a very bright outlook. Internet marketing is forecasted to grow into a $335 billion dollar industry by the year 2020. Think about that figure
How To Start An Affiliate Program
Two Ways To Start An Affiliate Program:
- Outsource The Creation And Management Of Your Affiliate Program
- Create Your Own Affiliate Program In-House
Let’s examine the pros, cons and best methods of each way:
Method 1: Outsource The Creation And Management Of Your Affiliate Program
Pros Of Outsourcing Your Affiliate Program To An Expert:
- Precise set up and systematization
- Access to network placement, affiliate opportunities and additional tools you don’t have
- Experience to avoid logistical and other problems
- Long-term optimization
Cons Of Outsourcing Your Affiliate Program To An Expert:
- It will be more expensive in the beginning (but ultimately more cost efficient)
- Choosing the right company to work with and trust
Recommended Outsourcing Expert For Affiliate Marketing Management:
I’ve been in the affiliate marketing game now for well over a decade and I only trust one person to recommend for this role:
Geno Prussakov
Geno is the best. He’s the most knowledgeable and experienced affiliate program creator in the business. I was going to list his credentials here: books & courses written, numerous awards, distinctions and references. But if I included a complete list this page would double in length.
Not only has he launched literally hundreds of affiliate programs, he’s written several books on the topic too (one of which, in fact, is being used as a manual in MBA courses.
Hear from Geno yourself:
Method 2: Create And Manage Your Own Affiliate Program
Pros Of Managing Your Affiliate Program In-House:
- Relatively inexpensive
- Complete customization
- You maintain 100% control
Cons Of Managing Your Affiliate Program In-House:
- There is a learning curve and set up required
- Time consuming
- Mistakes can be costly
Recommended Software For In-House Affiliate Marketing Management:
Why Post Affiliate Pro?
Post Affiliate Pro is the #1 ranked and most reviewed affiliate software on the market*. It is easy to set up an operate and connects with virtually any website or payment gateway. Currently, more than 30,000 businesses trust Post Affiliate Pro as their choice for affiliate software. Post Affiliate Pro features rock-solid tracking, scalability and endless customization and grows with your needs. All at an affordable monthly fee.
*Based on 300+ Reviews on 3 Independent Software Marketplaces & Review Platforms Including:
Are you still learning how affiliate marketing works?
That’s OK. let’s step back and cover the basics…
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a system of online promoting where you earn a commission by selling somebody else’s products and services to a third party.
What Are Affiliate Programs?
Affiliate programs are specific arrangements defined by an online merchant that pays individual affiliate marketers a commission to make online sales for them. Typically, merchants will have a page dedicated on their website that lays out the terms of the program and a sign up process to complete.
Why Affiliate Marketing Is A Win Win For Both Parties
Advantages Of Affiliate Marketing For The Merchant:
- The merchant only pays a commission once a sale is made. Therefore its like having an invisible army of salespeople who you never pay until you get paid first
- Affiliates send valuable traffic to your website and increase the exposure for your brand and services
- External links to your website from a network of marketers increases your visibility and ranking in the search engines through SEO (search engine optimization) which brings your site even more free traffic
- Affiliate marketing is highly analytical. With it you can track every detail of your campaigns including clicks, conversions, geo data, trends and more. You can use this data strategically to dial in and improve your revenue and profits
Advantages For The Online Marketer:
- Online marketers don’t need to create or acquire any of their own products or services to sell
- Marketers don’t need to buy or store inventory, do any product or service fulfillment or customer service. The affiliate marketers only job is to promote, sell and collect income
- Affiliate marketing is usually conducted from home so there are little overhead costs involved
- There is very little risk involved and the amount of income marketers can earn is literally unlimited
Affiliate Disclosure
Disclosure: The operator of this website is a 3rd party marketer with a material connection to product/service providers appearing on this site in that we are compensated for sales made through our affiliate links.
If you have any questions please contact me (Bill) at beachroulette @ gmail.com.
