Chris Stocker Inc

Affiliate Marketing Monday – Getting Your Program Started

Chris Stocker

I hear from clients all the time, “I don’t think an affiliate program is right for me.”  My first question is, “Why not?”  Typically, the answers I receive are,

These questions are all easy to answer, which makes it a no-brainer that an affiliate marketing program is for you!  Every Monday from now on Chris Stocker Inc, will be Affiliate Marketing Monday brought to you by CSI Marketing Solutions, LLC.

Let’s begin.

First, getting started with an affiliate program is probably the most time consuming part for the fact that you need to research which affiliate network you want to join.  There are three main networks, Commission Junction, ShareASale, Google Affiliate Network.  Each has their own advantages so researching which would fit your company best is extremely important.  When doing this, make sure to keep in mind how much the initial set up fee is, montlhy minimums, are your competitors in this network, are there enough publishers within the network that fit your niche?  The best affiliate marketing program out there is the one that works best for your company.

Once you have decided which affiliate network you are going with, now it’s time to recruit, recruit, recruit, recruit.  If you are a small business or your product has a very defined niche market then don’t expect your affiliate program to be like the Field of Dreams and people will come just because you built it.  It will take time to find quality publishers.  You can start your recruiting from within the affiliate network.  Ask your network rep about e-mail policies and rates for introducing your program to the entire network.  Most affiliate networks have monthly or weekly e-mails sent out to all publishers.

Now that you have your list of affiliates you want to recruit, you need material to give to them.  Start creating some creatives.  Typically, the best performing links are text links, but be sure to have an equal amount of banner creatives for those that will want them.  The networks will allow you to upload your links and will create the custom code needed for tracking purposes for each individual affiliate.  Of course it would be a good idea to have some basic HTML skills, but if not, then don’t be alarmed.  The amount of coding that you would need to do is very minimal.  If you do know HTML then there are different customizations that you can make for each affiliate.  I would recommend spending $100 to take an HTML course.

Managing your affiliate program can be done in-house or by an OPM (outsourced program manager).  Depending on the size of your program, you will need about 20 hours a week to manage your program.  That is a rough estimate because if you have 100 affiliates that don’t require much attention as opposed to 5,000 affiliates all needing equal attention.  We will get into more detail about managing your affiliate program next Monday.

If you have any questions about affiliate marketing or starting an affiliate program, please leave your comments and we can discuss in a later Affiliate Marketing Monday session.

Now start researching your affiliate network!
photo credit: affiliatesummit via photopin cc