Affiliate Marketing

It didn't take long for us to figure out that the site had to get traffic, and that the huge numbers of visitors that we had anticipated were harder to generate than we thought. Years later the flow of visitors is a lot stronger than it was, and we've become useful to some of those people whose affiliate programs seemed willing to pay us significant money at the start, but never had to.

The very low expenditure involved in running an email campaign or a web site has changed the dynamics of who can be your media outlet. There are operators everywhere who run their sites to meet their own needs and if it does that, then anything else going on is free. That's not true of a magazine, or a radio station. Turns out that a good many of you are that kind of operator. Your site or your email newsletter is being seen by maybe 1000 people who are interested in what you do at a professional level.

Affiliate marketing is spectacular because it is almost cost free until it starts to pay off. If you find other traders who are providing information that is important to the people who might be your clients, offering them money to put your clients in touch with you makes sense. Once you find a dozen operators who are eager to sell your service, it doesn't matter all that much if 75% of them do a pretty ordinary job because the 25% are making a regular cash flow that outweighs what you'd get in other ways. More than that, the little that you pay the others is probably helping them develop their service, and their usefulness to you.

Think about this... we've had some very useful tips about developing our traffic from people who want us to carry their recommendation. Just the same, we're talking to one or two service providers who we want to use for marketing purposes, and we'll give them any help we can. It sounds like one big happy family and mostly it is. We really want to do well and we really want that to happen while we act honorably toward everyone in the market with us.

There are some tricks to this. Probably the biggest is to know how to pay those who help you. It's important because the web will rely on your honesty to be a viable trading mechanism. You can cheat your affiliates, but soon they'll want the space on their site back for someone who does pay (no they don't want to carry a link to just everyone).

The other trick is that you really want to work with people who are able to make some sales for you. The ones who sell nothing don't cost you anything, but it's not a good return on your effort. Selecting good affiliate partners should be based on how they interact with people who might be your clients, and the quality of what they provide those clients.

If this sounds good, we've spent some time developing our own program and we're happy to pass the knowledge on, email us and ask us how. You can find out more about our affiliate program by clicking here.

Disclaimer: This page is designed to provide information only and is not a substitute for advice that is specific to your business. Before acting on any of the information above it is important you seek further advice from a professional who has taken into consideration the nature and circumstances of your business.

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