Facing The Truth About Your Affiliate Program Can Help You Boost
Your Traffic And Sales!
First of all, if you don't have your own affiliate program that
you are in complete control of, then you DON'T have you own
affiliate program. If you don't own the database or are not at
least able to download it, then you DON'T have your own
affiliate program. If you have a limit on the number of
products, price, or limited control of your creatives, then you
DON'T have your own affiliate program. If you can NOT directly
contact your affiliates, then you DON'T have your own affiliate
program, someone ELSE does!
How can you fix this?
Running your own affiliate program gives you full control and
allows you to boost your sales significantly. Your product is
the life-blood of your business and your affiliates are the
arteries. Don't entrust that to just anyone.
Your affiliates are your salesmen; they are the
officially-licensed resellers of your product or service. Train
them, massage them and treat them right! You can't do that with
a system you have no control over.
An automated affiliate management program allows you to easily
train, manage, pay and reward your affiliates, all from one
central nerve center. You have complete control over everything
about your affiliate program.
When you got your first job, you were trained how to do it,
right? Well, the same holds true for your affiliates. Train them
on how to sell your stuff. An automated affiliate management
program effortlessly manages this process for you. It also
imposes NO limits on price, the number of products, or messages
you can send to your sales force (affiliates) either.
The system should also allow you to upload both text and graphic
ads and banners to your affiliate center. That is where your
affiliates go to grab their affiliate code, banners and text for
their promotional efforts. You can come up with your own
creatives and upload them, ready-made for your affiliates to use
in all types of promotions (i.e. banners, classifieds, ezines,
lists, etc.).
You can also use your autoresponder(s) to set up a training
series for your affiliates that teaches them exactly how to
promote your program. You can view sales and conversion stats
for your affiliates. They can also view their own stats, but the
beauty is that you can use this information to direct messages
to certain groups of affiliates.
For instance, you can send a special message to your strong
affiliate(s) offering them a larger commission as an incentive
to promote your program harder. You could also use the
statistical data from your affiliate center to target those
struggling affiliates. You can even inquire and direct more
focused training or help their way.
You run YOUR affiliate program with complete control! You can
set up trackers for the banners and ads so you can track banner
campaigns, or just see how well your classified ad pulls. Be
creative; do it your way. That's the real power in having your
own robust affiliate program that you control. You have the
flexibility to run it the way you want.
You can find stand-alone affiliate software, or affiliate
management software in many places on the Internet. Simply
perform a search for it in your favorite search engine. There
are also many hosted systems that don't require you to mess
around with any new software up-loads and learning curves. A
program like this is best if you want a robust, integrated
system that you can simply plug your products into and get
bookin' with some sales! Integrated systems also tie in many
other features, like sequential autoresponders, list management
and email marketing capabilities, ad tracking, expense tracking
and product management functionality.
Rigid systems like ClickBank are good, but you have no control
over it and NO database. Your affiliate database belongs to
ClickBank. Don't get me wrong. ClickBank has its place, but if
you have your own product/service and you're serious about your
e-business, then you need to have full-control over every aspect
of your e-business. Letting someone else have your database is
like having no business at all. What the heck is that?
Online, hosted systems were created just for this purpose -
Total e-business automation, from click to sale. You Have
Control - You Own The Database - You Set Your Limits - PLUS, it
is integrated with all of your business's other marketing and
ecommerce functions for a Total Kick Butt - Take No Prisoners
All-In-One E-Business Automation System!
Don't forget the stand-alone programs that run from your website
that you completely own outright. These, you have to configure
and upload to your server. You may have to create a database and
edit some scripts in order for this type of affiliate program to
work correctly. If you're that savvy, then a stand-alone system
may be what you need. However, if you don't have time and/or the
expertise, an existing hosted solution is your best option. They
are already tested and proven and just waiting for you to plug
your business in.
That's the secret to increasing your traffic and your sales
using affiliate management programs. You face the truth about
your affiliate program, realize the opportunities, choose your
option then, execute!