Mr Affiliate

By Holly Janion
Posted Wednesday, November 17, 2004

You've launched your affiliate program and everything is in place to track your affiliate sales. Affiliates are signing up but aren't making as many sales as you might have hoped for. You know it's not your product as you're still making sales yourself. So what's wrong? Why isn't Mr Affiliate making sales?

You must remember that Mr Affiliate is not only your affiliate, but has more than likely joined numerous other affiliate programs on the Internet. He obviously joined your program because he liked it, your product or service and the compensation plan. But time moves very fast in the Internet world and before Mr Affiliate has most probably even started marketing your site properly, he may have even joined yet another affiliate program that appealed to him.

There is certainly no shortage of affiliate programs on the Internet that are free and easy to join. Mr Affiliate wants to make money, that's why he joined your program. Unfortunately Mr Affiliate may not understand Internet marketing as well as you do. He may simply insert your banner onto his site and wait for sales.

So both of you are sitting there waiting for Mr Affiliate to start making sales. That's your problem. This is a real shame. Mr Affiliate is obviously available, willing and able and if only he knew what to do, would gladly do it and that's down to you. You need to train Mr Affiliate right away. You can't wait for Mr Affiliate to get motivated, you need to train Mr Affiliate. You can't afford to be complacent. The most successful affiliate programs do well because they have trained their affiliates. Their affiliates understand the program fully, they are supported and are kept in touch with. While you're sitting around waiting for Mr Affiliate to make a sale for you, he is being motivated by other affiliate programs and making sales for them.

Here are some practical steps to training Mr Affiliate.

1. Explain your program thoroughly before Mr Affiliate joins and include clear Terms and Conditions. This is your first opportunity to present your affiliate program benefits and compensation plan. Let your affiliates know what you expect from them and what they can expect from you.

2. Make sure you have numerous banners of different sizes and also text links with clear and easy to understand code. Your affiliates have different web sites, different designs, and different color schemes so make sure you give them enough choice to insert a suitable banner.

3. Supply your affiliates with classified ads and articles. Affiliates want to promote your program but they don't have as much time or knowledge to devote to your program as you do. By providing a range of ads that you know work and articles promoting your program for inclusion in e-zines, you'll be making Mr Affiliate's job a lot easier.

3. Let your affiliates know exactly where to/how to check their stats and if possible, set up your affiliate program to e-mail Mr Affiliate automatically whenever he makes a sale. Affiliates love receiving these e-mails!

4. Keep in touch with your affiliates on a regular basis. Whether its weekly or monthly is up to you, but be consistent. Be helpful to Mr Affiliate, be interesting and he'll look forward to hearing from you.

5. Send your affiliates the URL's of places to promote your program. Keep it updated. Again, you don't want Mr Affiliate to have to waste time looking for places to promote, make it easy by providing him with this information.

6. Always answer any questions in a timely and courteous manner. Be personal and let Mr Affiliate know he is a valued member of your team.

7. Be prompt with your payments. Your affiliates have most probably worked hard for their sale/sales so reward them when you say you will. There's nothing as motivating as receiving payment!

By following these simple steps Mr Affiliate will market your product easily and professionally with not that much more effort required. He will be making sales and will no longer just be Mr Affiliate, he will have become Mr Happy Affiliate Making Sales!

And if you can turn all your Mr Affiliates into Mr Happy Affiliate Making Sales, you yourself will go from being simply Mr Affiliate Owner, to Mr Successful, Lying-in-the Sun, Professional Affiliate Owner!

About the Author
Holly Janion is the webmaster for Wade's World Ltd, an Internet solutions company at (http://www.wadesworld-usa.com). Her latest creations can be seen at (http://www.wwwtreasurehunt.com) and (http://www.view-home.com). Holly can be contacted at mailto: webmaster@wadesworld.co.uk