Best way to start an affiliate program

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if you could provide me with some feedback as to whether it is better to create your own affiliate program, or whether to join an existing affiliate network?

Here is my situation: I have created my own affiliate program in-house which pays $30 on every sale. The systems works perfectly and I'm very happy with it because I have complete control over how it operates and I'm not reliant on any 3rd parties to oversee it.

My only problem is 'spreading the word' of my affiliate program. Does anyone know how I might go about doing this for my own in-house program?

I don't know what most people do, do they develop thier own affilaite programs in-house or do they use off the shelf systems?

Many thanks,

BBB

There are a ton of affiliate directories out there and affiliate networks you can submit your own affiliate program to. Just google "affiliate directories" and the like.

I dont think it matters if it's in-house or 3rd party software as long as it works and the overhead is low.

Here's a UK one http://www.affiliatefirst.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?g=uk/index.shtml&t=gr&d=1

ahhh an ""affiliate directory" - that's the search phrase I was looking for! Thanks PK!

BBB

PR (press release) is a good idea as well. We just came out with our affiliate program a couple of weeks ago and I find that this PR was posted on many affiliate sites and quite a few sign-ups came from the links contained in that PR. And of course affiliate directories

If you have atleast $500 to deposit, Commsission Junction ( www.CJ.com) is probably one of the best.

For some reason I thought it was much more. I visited them a few dyas ago and it was like $3000 to start. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right places. Do you have more info?

You need only a few GOOD affiliates. Find independent sites that hold topSERPs for your most important KWs and ask what it would take for them to promote your product. Five superaffiliates will mean a lot less work for you to manage.

Yeap, I agree that having a few GOOD affiliates is better than thousands of bad ones. But the second part might not always work. In my particular situation none of the sites that hold top positions for my KWs would even want to look in my direction.

You need to get them to look in your direction then. If you can offer more money, say so. If you can offer better reporting, say so. Uptime? Customer support? Cash disbursement schedules?

Whatever "edge" you determine you have over the people they are currently using, you must exploit that. Let's say you offer the same amount of cash, same checking cutting procedures, everything...except that you can provide interactive forms integrated into their site, reducing the amount of work someone has to go through in order to purchase -- well, tout that.

Also, if the top guys are all on the same program, ask them how they like their duplicate visitors getting wasted?

There's a LOT of ways you can position yourself to grab the big boys -- do that first and the little guys will come in on their own; just don't drown yourself handling numerous requests from people that can only bring in $5 a month in revenue.

Cygnus

at the end of the day affiliates only care about how much they will make from you compared to your competition.

CJ costs around 5,000 to set-up. The 500 figure is a minimum you must pay them monthly but you pay much more than that if you sell lots of products.

Here are some other ways to promote your program (I do promotion for a living):

Some affiliate forums allow an affiate program announcement (including my 5 star affiliate forum and several others that I mod.)

You can submit for free to most affiliate directories.
Do the top 6 in Google: http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Authoring/Webmaster_Resources/Affiliate_Programs/Resources/Directories/?il=1
The directories won't get you lots of affiliates, but you should still get listed.

If you want to join an affiliate network that is very low cost yet has some great affiliates, take a look at Shareasale.com. Only $150 set-up.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

CJ is good, but start-up costs is VERY high - over $5,000 + $500/month you have to pay even if you don't have any sales - it's TOO much. If you have gross about $50,000 a month - it's ok, but for small players is kinda high.