Setting up Your Own Affiliate Program (part two)

This article is the second of a two part series on settingup your own affiliate program. In addition to starting anaffiliate program, you must manage it and keep track of it.The following information will show you howManaging and tracking your affiliate programs

The key to any business is to promote your products andservices to people who need them. Your affiliate business isno different. In order to earn commissions you must put yourproducts in front of the people who need them. The beauty ofmarketing affiliate programs is that it is anybody’s ballgame. This is the one place you can burrow deep into yourown niche and stick it to the so-called 'big wigs'.

You may create your own affiliate program or you may promoteother popular affiliate programs that are related to yourproduct or service. The best way to manage and trackaffiliate programs is by creating your own affiliate programwebsite. This is where you can list all your affiliateprograms.

Staying Organized

There are many affiliate networks that provide multipleaffiliate programs and merchants. Keeping a track of allaffiliate programs in a single network is easy. You wouldgenerally be given one username and password as well as asingle interface that controls all the programs. However, ifyou have many of your own affiliate programs or you promoteseveral stand-alone affiliate programs from your website,the task of staying organized becomes a bit more complex.

There are many software programs available on the Internetthat organize and keep track of all data associated withaffiliate programs. Some of these are My Affiliate Program2000 and Affiliate Assistant 1.0. These programs maintaindatabases pertaining to information about all your affiliateprograms. A typical database would consist of the followingfields:

* Program Name
* Date joined or created
* Contact Name
* URL* Email Address
* ID* Password
* 1st Tier Percent
* 1st Tier Sale
* 2nd Tier Percent
* 2nd Tier Sale
* Total Income
* Additional comments

Once the program information has been entered, you can addinformation about individual sales made and checks received.The program then keeps track of sales to date, amountcollected and receivables. Besides, some of the advancedsoftware programs also provide analysis and comparison toolsfor all affiliate programs. If you take the time to inputcollected data about clicks, sales, and page views,impressions, emails sent etc. from your various campaignsand enter all of it into the program, it will show you:

* Click to Sale Ratios
* Impression to Sale Ratios
* Amount Earned Per Impression
* Amount Earned Per Click

Apart from these are a few other tips that might help youmanage your affiliate programs.

* Always ensure that your website is up and running. On aDaily basis type your URL into your browser's address bar,refresh the page and find out. The danger in not knowingthat your site is down comes when you are running a pay perclick advertising campaign. The click costs add up whetheryour site is functional or not. If your site is down, youare paying for advertising, but no one is buying.

* Check your statistics daily, maybe even twice a day. Thiswill give you a better idea of your income trends and alsohighlight affiliate programs that bring your business. Visitthe statistics interface for each network and individualaffiliate partner and input your total revenues into anyaccounting software. Using such software frequently willalso keep you informed as to whether certain checks havebecome overdue.

* Be prompt in answering any queries from affiliate partnersor customers, especially when these are about your productsor services. This probably means that the customer trustsyour site and is thinking of buying your product.

* One of the main aspects of any affiliate program isresidual income. You've got to make the most of each andevery customer you receive. The best way to do this is bypromoting affiliate programs that offer residual commission.

* This allows you to repeatedly get paid for work you doonce. For example, if a visitor arrives at your site andpurchases auto responder services, newsletter subscriptions,ISP/hosting services, you will collect a portion of themonthly fees for as long as they remain a paying customer.Membership sites are a good way to collect residualcommissions and are steadily growing in popularity. Thereare many affiliate programs that offer residual commission.

* A well placed recommendation placed at the end of anoutgoing email can bring in extra sales. Target youraudience, what are their specific needs? If you can offerthem a product they need/want, often times the end resultwill be a sale.

* Finally, track all your affiliate links. The best way toaccomplish this is by setting up tracking software for youraffiliate links. There are a number of scripts that will dothe job. Most tracking programs typically allow you to setuptracking links for any product you promote, telling you howmany hits each product has received, and where the hits arecoming from. A more detailed view of tracking and analysisis given in the section below.

* It is not enough to have a few banners and classified ads.You must provide as much help as possible for yourassociates if you want them to be successful. You shouldhave tested and proven endorsements, testimonials, sigfiles, ezine ads, and other unique tools and techniques. Youmust also make yourself available, either through email orthe phone, to help your affiliates implement these tools andto answer any questions they may have.

* Whether you run your own or participate in an affiliateprogram, you must be able to determine what methods workbest in a particular medium. For instance, which ezine adswork best and in what ezine; which banner ads produce thegreatest clickthroughs and from which sites or bannerexchanges; and where on your website is the most effectivespot to include a testimonial.

* Some affiliate programs, have implemented unique paymentprocedures to get affiliates their commission checks on atimely basis. Some of these procedures include: onlineelectronic payment services, direct bank deposits and checksby fax. If you can solidify your payment procedures from thestart, you will save yourself an administrative headache andmore importantly, keep your affiliates happy and working topromote your program.

This concludes my series on starting your own affiliateprogram. This information should be all you need to start,manage and track your own affiliate program.

Best Regards