By Martin Melisek
Many work at home entrepreneurs sell digital products online. From ebooks, DVD's to teleseminars and copywriting services, they all have something in common: once a product website is put online, there's a challenge of getting traffic and customers.
If your home business is on a budget, having to pay for advertising upfront might not be viable. That's where revenue sharing can help you get advertising partners you couldn't get otherwise.
Affiliate program is basically a revenue sharing advertising model that you can add to your product website. Advantage is that you pay for performance -- only when a certain action is completed. Most work at home entrepreneurs run pay per sale affiliate programs. A simplified overview how affiliate program works would be:
* Recruit affiliate partners
* Provide them with affiliate promotional tools
* Pay them commission on customers they deliver to your website
Building a profitable affiliate program requires time and effort, but if done right it is a big advantage - a network of advertising partners.
Good partnerships with affiliates are more reliable than Search engine
rankings or Paid campaigns. Direct relationships with affiliates will increase sales of your products but also help you with launches of new products.
Affiliate program also transforms the way you look on websites online. In every niche, there are websites that sell complimentary products, blogs that can send you targeted traffic etc. With affiliate program you can approach them make them an offer.
If you want to build your own network of affiliates, that bring you more sales, you have 2 basic options: Either you join an affiliate network (such as ClickBank or CJ) or run your own in-house affiliate program.
There are several differences between the two. Affiliate networks will host your affiliate program for you. They typically charge set-up fees and percentage from all affiliate sales monthly (or a monthly minimum). Affiliate networks provide initial exposure for your affiliate program by promoting it to the affiliates in that network. Affiliate networks typically take care of paying your affiliates out. Most affiliates work at home.
The other option is to run your own, independent program. This means you purchase affiliate software for your website. There are several advantages of this solution:
* Costs -- Independent programs usually don't involve monthly fees.
* Higher commissions -- networks take their cut e.g. 20% from affiliate commissions. With in-house program you can give these commissions to affiliates and start an affiliate program that is more competitive
* Affiliates are yours - with in-house software you recruit affiliates for yourself, not for the network. Networks have multiple advertisers so your offer is not the only one that is promoted to affiliates in that network. You do the job of recruiting affiliates, network makes profit.
* Direct relationship with affiliates -- networks typically restrict your access to affiliate's contact information. They don't want you to make deal with affiliates outside network -- because that way they can't charge you.
* Dependent on 3rd party -- if network fees increase, your only option is to pay or stop your affiliate program.
* Search engine benefits -- if you care about search engine rankings / SEO, with independent programs affiliates link directly to your website and can result in thousands of direct links to your work at home business.
Basic requirements on affiliate software. Listed below is basic functionality that is required in all kinds of affiliate programs:
* track affiliate-referred sales / leads / clicks / impressions / subaffiliates
* should support your affiliate scheme
* handle new affiliate signups
* calculate commissions for affiliates
* notify you and affiliates about major events (sale, new affiliate signup etc)
* distribute affiliate code (promotional tools) affiliates
* compatible with your shopping cart / payment processor
* 24 / 7 real-time reports for you and affiliates
* possibility to customize and brand design of affiliate panel and affiliate sign up form
* keep track of affiliate payouts
* refund / chargeback management
Conclusion:
Affiliate program is a way to increase online sales for your home-based business cost-effectively. Main advantage is that you build your own network of advertising partners and pay only when action is completed. To start an affiliate program, you can choose either affiliate network or in-house software.
Martin Melisek is sales manager at QualityUnit.com, vendor of affiliate tracking software -- a full featured package to start your own affiliate program.
Copyright 2007 Work-at-Home.org
Many work at home entrepreneurs sell digital products online. From ebooks, DVD's to teleseminars and copywriting services, they all have something in common: once a product website is put online, there's a challenge of getting traffic and customers.
If your home business is on a budget, having to pay for advertising upfront might not be viable. That's where revenue sharing can help you get advertising partners you couldn't get otherwise.
Affiliate program is basically a revenue sharing advertising model that you can add to your product website. Advantage is that you pay for performance -- only when a certain action is completed. Most work at home entrepreneurs run pay per sale affiliate programs. A simplified overview how affiliate program works would be:
* Recruit affiliate partners
* Provide them with affiliate promotional tools
* Pay them commission on customers they deliver to your website
Building a profitable affiliate program requires time and effort, but if done right it is a big advantage - a network of advertising partners.
Good partnerships with affiliates are more reliable than Search engine
rankings or Paid campaigns. Direct relationships with affiliates will increase sales of your products but also help you with launches of new products.
Affiliate program also transforms the way you look on websites online. In every niche, there are websites that sell complimentary products, blogs that can send you targeted traffic etc. With affiliate program you can approach them make them an offer.
If you want to build your own network of affiliates, that bring you more sales, you have 2 basic options: Either you join an affiliate network (such as ClickBank or CJ) or run your own in-house affiliate program.
There are several differences between the two. Affiliate networks will host your affiliate program for you. They typically charge set-up fees and percentage from all affiliate sales monthly (or a monthly minimum). Affiliate networks provide initial exposure for your affiliate program by promoting it to the affiliates in that network. Affiliate networks typically take care of paying your affiliates out. Most affiliates work at home.
The other option is to run your own, independent program. This means you purchase affiliate software for your website. There are several advantages of this solution:
* Costs -- Independent programs usually don't involve monthly fees.
* Higher commissions -- networks take their cut e.g. 20% from affiliate commissions. With in-house program you can give these commissions to affiliates and start an affiliate program that is more competitive
* Affiliates are yours - with in-house software you recruit affiliates for yourself, not for the network. Networks have multiple advertisers so your offer is not the only one that is promoted to affiliates in that network. You do the job of recruiting affiliates, network makes profit.
* Direct relationship with affiliates -- networks typically restrict your access to affiliate's contact information. They don't want you to make deal with affiliates outside network -- because that way they can't charge you.
* Dependent on 3rd party -- if network fees increase, your only option is to pay or stop your affiliate program.
* Search engine benefits -- if you care about search engine rankings / SEO, with independent programs affiliates link directly to your website and can result in thousands of direct links to your work at home business.
Basic requirements on affiliate software. Listed below is basic functionality that is required in all kinds of affiliate programs:
* track affiliate-referred sales / leads / clicks / impressions / subaffiliates
* should support your affiliate scheme
* handle new affiliate signups
* calculate commissions for affiliates
* notify you and affiliates about major events (sale, new affiliate signup etc)
* distribute affiliate code (promotional tools) affiliates
* compatible with your shopping cart / payment processor
* 24 / 7 real-time reports for you and affiliates
* possibility to customize and brand design of affiliate panel and affiliate sign up form
* keep track of affiliate payouts
* refund / chargeback management
Conclusion:
Affiliate program is a way to increase online sales for your home-based business cost-effectively. Main advantage is that you build your own network of advertising partners and pay only when action is completed. To start an affiliate program, you can choose either affiliate network or in-house software.
Martin Melisek is sales manager at QualityUnit.com, vendor of affiliate tracking software -- a full featured package to start your own affiliate program.
Copyright 2007 Work-at-Home.org
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