5 Tips For Starting An Affiliate Program For Your Business

Just because a business has a product to sell, doesn’t mean that they have the resources or the capital to hire a sales team to sell it. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t find help.

If you have a mountain of product to move and you find yourself in need of a partner, why not consider an affiliate program?

Affiliate programs work like partnerships. Someone sells your product for you and in return, you give them a share in the sale. You move product, they make money — a match made in heaven.

So how does one go about starting an affiliate program?

Table of Contents

Find The Right Match

The first thing you have to do is take a good look at your products and ask, what do you think can be sold by someone other than you. Do you know someone else who is just as passionate about your product? Is there another expert in your niche that will do your product justice? That may sound like a silly question, but one of the main principles behind an affiliate program should be ease of operation. If you have a product that takes extensive training to understand, it may not be the best choice for an affiliate to sell. Look for products that sell themselves.

Profit Share

The next step is deciding how much of the profit from the sale your affiliate is going to get. There is no set rule on how much you’re supposed to pay your affiliate. The best move here is to evaluate the profit margin on all of the products you offer and then carefully calculate how much you are willing to pay someone to lend you a hand.

Profit Vs. Fee

Another option for paying your affiliate is giving them a flat rate. While this may be easier for you in the short term, you may lose money in the long term. A profit based payment method will encourage your affiliate to move product, while a flat fee means that they would get paid no matter how much product they sold.

Must read: How To Make Money Online – 10 best ways for doing it!

Finding Your Affiliates

There are a few different ways to go about finding affiliates. I would suggest joining an affiliate network. Think of affiliate networks like a distant cousin to dating websites. These networks exist to link businesses with their pool of members who are looking for things to sell. (Remember, just because someone is your affiliate, doesn’t mean that they aren’t someone else’s as well. Some people make a career out of affiliate marketing.) Your other option is searching though message boards in your businesses niche and looking for people who you think may make good affiliates.

Must read: Online Passive Income – 5 Money Making Ideas for Bloggers

Marketing

Lastly, you and all of your affiliates have to get out there and spread the word. Just because you have products to sell, that doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone knows your products are out there. Search the internet for articles on email marketing and affiliate marketing, look into sites like Google Ads and track all the traffic on you and your affiliates websites with Google Analytics. You and your affiliate should be on the same page with everything regarding your product and your business before you go live with the program. Remember, an affiliate program can help your business grow to new heights, but only if you take your time and do it right.

Comments

Sandeep Kumar says

October 4, 2012 at 5:37 am

Hi Daniel…
I like your systemetic approach to fine a perfect affiliate partner and selling the product.
Success of a product depends upon many factors and having a suitalbes affiliate partner is one of them.

I’ll follow your guideline once I’ll be ready with my own product.

Regards
Sandeep Kumar
Tim Bonner says

October 7, 2012 at 6:40 am

Hi Daniel

Some great tips for starting an affiliate program.

I would agree that joining an affiliate network is the way to go unless you have an established brand.

The only negative aspect of this is that often you have to pay a fee upfront to add your product to the marketplace with no guarantee of a return.
PrIyAnGsHu says

October 7, 2012 at 5:54 am

Wow, great tips Daniel to setup and manage an affiliate program of a business effectively. I’m kicking off a startup right now, but have not yet integrated an affiliate program into it. I will soon start an affiliate program once the network will be grown up.
Daniel says

October 7, 2012 at 7:50 pm

Thanks guys. Affiliate programs can be overwhelming but with the right system, you can really work it!
Felicia says

October 12, 2012 at 9:59 am

Hi Daniel,
These are certainly great tips on how you can potentially increase the profit of your business through the use of affiliate programs. Although I do not run a business myself, I am however an affiliate marketer for different businesses.
Kate Click says

October 14, 2012 at 1:38 am

Hey Daniel,

Great post–I think a lot of those unfamiliar with affiliate programs are often surprised how massive these networks are. And they only have room to grow and expand into new niches as consumer conversations around products occur more frequently online.

Another way of starting up a large affiliate program (or in addition to it) is to implement a customer referral program: rewarding your existing customers–who know and are passionate about your product–for recommending your product to friends.

While bigger affiliate programs have greater mass, a word-of-mouth referral program has more efficient network effects: your customers love your product, so there is a higher probability that friends who share their tastes will enjoy your product as well.

Disclosure: We offer an open API for customer referral programs at Referly, and have seen our partners make great gains from it.
Santhosh Kumar says

October 15, 2012 at 11:12 pm

Hi Daniel Cassady,

Very interesting post. I love your writing style which is so logical and crisp. I am following your articles and now I have built an affiliate site – http://microstockinfo.net/. And all thanks for your greatly informative articles!

Santhosh
Online Moneymaker says

November 2, 2012 at 7:36 pm

To all product owners: as an affiliate marketer, might I suggest making your commissions 75%? 🙂
Pushkar Kohli says

November 8, 2012 at 6:27 am

Great Tips Daniel!!. I am planning to start an affiliate program too on couple of blogs which are doing well!!
JHFX says

November 13, 2012 at 8:35 pm

Building a team of affiliates is the way to go for long term success. These are great ideas for finding new affiliates and expanding a business online. Any business, blogger or niche website with a good product or service should look for ways to attract good affiliates for their team with great compensation and incentives.
Donna says

February 1, 2013 at 1:08 am

When it comes to making money with affiliate programs it does not matter what your professional background is. You may be an engineer, a mechanic, a secretary, or an accountant. However, people from all over the world that have no experience at all are now making money with affiliates.
Michael says

March 14, 2013 at 1:53 am

Great and thanks a bunch!!!! Affiliate program training can be overwhelming but with the right system, you can really work it!
qasim says

August 25, 2013 at 10:59 pm

Hi Daniel,

The interest has really opened it up for people to make money online selling their physical products and most importantly digital products where affiliate programmers can really help increasing your sales without the need for paying big money for marketing and sales guys. Thanks for sharing your tips Daniel.
Vivek Jain says

September 3, 2013 at 9:35 am

Finding the right match or the right niche is very important thing to do for starting Affiliate Business.
These are surely the great tips for any newbies Affiliate Marketer.
Again thanks for your valuable share. 🙂