Sections of this topic
Establish an Online Affiliate Program
Online marketing can quite effectively expand your sales force (and your sales!) with minimal cash outlay and greatly increased margins.
Your business can literally explode online sales with a simple and easy to administer Affiliate Marketing program. Using one website to drive sales to another website is the basic concept employed in affiliate marketing, which is growing in favor among retailers everywhere who are looking for innovative ways to increase sales.
Use an Affiliate Network
Affiliate Networks are companies that match retailers and salespeople. They handle all the transaction flow in exchange for compensation from the transactions and the relationships. Affiliate Networks act as the intermediary between retailers (called Merchant Affiliate programs) and salespeople (called Publishers or Affiliates).
Top Affiliate Networks coordinate hundreds, and even thousands of Merchant Affiliate programs, which are searchable by keyword in their extensive directories. Affiliates earn a sizable commission for each sale made through their own website. On their own websites, Affiliates often promote a wide variety of Merchant programs related to their core business and customer needs.
Affiliate Network Services and Benefits
For Merchants, Affiliate Network services and benefits may include:
- instant tracking technology,
- extensive reporting tools,
- automated payment processing, and
- access to a large base of resellers/Publishers.
For Affiliates, services and benefits can include
- simplifying the process of registering for one or more Merchant Affiliate programs, greatly reducing the administrative and record keeping burdens,
- automated reporting tools, and
- complete payment aggregation.
Affiliate Network Costs
Affiliates are generally able to join top Affiliate Networks for free, whereas there is generally a fee for Merchants to participate. Traditional Affiliate Networks might charge an initial setup fee and/or a recurring membership fee. It is also common for Affiliate Networks to charge merchants a percentage of the commissions paid to Affiliates.
In the next post, we’ll go into more depth, identify top Affiliate Networks, and take a look at Affiliate Network compensation models.
What Affiliate Marketing success stories can you share?
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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.
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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:
Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com
