If you’re an affiliate marketer already, the advice below is like preaching to the choir. Whether you’re selling your own product, thinking about migrating from affiliate sales to creating your own product, or are new to online marketing, having others do affiliate marketing for you can be very beneficial.
Does the thought of sharing profits from your monetised website make you cringe? For many business owners, the thought of putting in a lot of work to get a site up and running and profitable, and then giving part of the bottom line away is a frightening one.
Consider that your affiliates are not taking from you, they are actually giving you something valuable. It’s no wonder so many businesses have decided to go with an affiliate sales model instead of hiring full time sales people.
Why You Need Affiliates
You may currently be the only one in your online business who is promoting, marketing and advertising. Now imagine if you cloned yourself and you suddenly had ten people to take on these tasks. Surely this would increase your exposure exponentially and provide further opportunities to make a sale. The result? More sales, more brand exposure, and an increase in profits.
That is what affiliates can do for your business. With a number of people who are equally contributing to promotion, your company can grow in ways it never could before.
Affiliates increase consumer brand awareness. They reach out to markets that one person cannot cover alone. They have a whole new set of friends, acquaintances, and family members to spread the word about your business and its offerings.
A Win-Win Situation
When you use affiliates to grow your business, there is really no way to lose. Affiliates work on a commission basis; if they don’t sell anything, then they don’t make anything.
This is very powerful motivation. Your affiliates will do their best to promote your products or services because it is good for them. They won’t make money unless they are successful at selling. Some will even invest in paid online advertising campaigns because of the potential they see in your product.
As the owner of the business, you lose nothing. If your affiliates are not doing their job, then they don’t get paid – it’s as simple as that. So why not share a portion of the profits? With affiliates as your sales force, your business will sell more than it ever did before.
Considerations
Of course, for an affiliate program to be successful, you have to carefully consider the people you select to represent your company. It does no good to accept affiliates who can’t deliver in the way of increasing sales; in fact, it merely wastes time.
In order to attract the best, you need to offer competitive compensation by way of healthy Affiliate Commissions. If you institute an affiliate program that pays a measly percentage, then don’t expect to find top performers.
Think about incentive programs you can offer to your affiliates. Perhaps you could give a bonus to each month’s top sellers. Encourage healthy competition to realise the best results.
Be prepared to give your affiliates all of the tools they need to be successful. Being a good manager involves motivation, support, and frequent communication. You may want to consider developing an intranet site where you can meet regularly with your affiliates to share tips, techniques, successes, and brainstorm.
Sharing commission profits with a core group of affiliates can be an excellent way to make your business grow. Not only is it good for your affiliates, but it increases your sales and your bottom line.
See you at the top of Google!
Sean Rasmussen
SEO Australia Pacific
AussieSEO.com © 2007 - 2010
Paying your affiliates makes lots of sense and it is comparable cheap, as you only have to pay them once you had a sale. Other forms of marketing (eg PPC) take money of you just for sending someone your way, but they might not necessarily buy. So I would rather pay an affiliate as he or she earned the money and put the work in already.
.-= Renee´s last blog ..Definition Of Motivation =-.
It can definitely be a great way to go Renee. win win situation for everyone
Hi Sean,
I like the idea of having about 20 affiliates selling my products. I can see the money rolling in now. As I read your articles I can see many opportunities opening up that are there for the taking – further down the track.
This is an interesting article holding strategies for making money online.
Hi Sean,
It makes a lot of sense to pay your affiliates well for their marketing efforts. You really do need to if you want to get the best people to sell your products and gain a wider exposure for your business.
Also, I think that the better the resources you provide to help your affiliate marketers sell your products, the more they will sell. Like Jill, I’d also like to have a product one day and a whole team of affiliate marketers to sell it with me.
.-= Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Learn and Earn Competition – This is It =-.
Hi Sean
I totally agree that affiliates are a great asset to your company. I would not balk at paying my affiliates a handsome percentage as they would have had to have the sales to receive some money so I know that they deserved it.
Another upside to having affiliates is like you said in your article, all these people you employ to sell your product have friends, family, and business connections and are people you most probably would not have met if you were just a one man band. Plus there is the potential for a much larger volume of sales when you have affiliates.
Training your affiliates properly and making sure that they use and like the product they are selling is also a very important thing to consider. The affiliates need to be looked after too.
Blessings,
Elly
.-= Elly´s last blog .. =-.