There is more involved in setting up an affiliate program than meets the eye. See some of the steps below.
1. Determine which affiliate software or network you will use. See more info here about affiliate software and affiliate networks.
2. Set up the settings in the affiliate program. This involves providing some information in the software.
- Company name.
- Contact information. You usually have an option to provide your contact information for billing and different contact information affiliates will see.
- Web site url.
- Product name and product description. If you have multiple products, you'll have to set up each product separately.
- Price of products.
- How much commission (%) you'll pay in first tier.
- How much commission (%) you'll pay in 2d tier – if any
- Links (urls) to the different information pages (faq, sales letter, agreement)
3. Create several web pages:
- Product sales page (you probably already have that).
- Affiliate page (affiliate sales page) mentioning the benefits of your program, why they should join, how much commission you're paying, and how to sign up (link to affiliate software).
- Affiliate tools page (text links, articles, bannerc, etc. – see more info below)
- Affiliate agreement/terms of service – mention here what affiliates can do and what they can't. For example, you will not allow spamming. Or you may not want them to use the product name and url in PPC, SEO and domain. (I recommend NOT restricting them).
- Thank you page or thank you email message (thanks for joining the affiliate program).
- Affiliate FAQ page – This answers questions affiliate may have, e.g. how the commissions work and how the tracking works.
4. Provide affiliates with tools they can use to help them sell your products.
This is very important. You want to make it as easy as possible for affiliates to promote your products by providing content affiliates can use for their blogs (e.g. articles, reviews, tips, email messages, autoresponder messages, etc.).
Affiliate tools can include:
- Text ads. I recommend 5 to 10 text ads.
- Articles.
- A variety of banners in different sizes. Many affiliates only know how to place a banner. If you don't provide banners, you'll lose affiliates. I recommend 5 to 10 banners. You should have a variety of sizes. Some people only have room for a small rectagular ad and others like large wide banners. The best way to see examples is to create a free account with clickbank and Commission Junction and look at what banners people are using for your type of products.
- Product reviews affiliates can use.
- Email messages affiliates can use for their email promotions. These can be text and/or HTML emails.
- Autoresponder messages affiliates can send to their subscribers.
- 3-5 part course for affiliates to send to their subscribers.
- Sample PPC ads.
- Code for popup, popunder, etc.
- Videos affiliates can use.
- Create a keyword list.
- More advanced marketers also provide training materials and tutorials for affiliates.
5. Upload your pages to the host
If you don't have hosting for your website yet, see my hosting recommendations here.
You'll need an FTP program to upload your pages to your host.
6. Promote your affiliate program
See more info here on how to promote your affiliate program.
Contact me if you need help with setting up your affiliate program or if you need a more sophisticated system than is mentioned here.
Here's the legal mumbo jumbo:
I only recommend products I believe in whether they have affiliate programs or not. I have used all the products I'm recommending here either for my own web sites or clients' web sites. Some links are affiliate links, and if you click on an affiliate link and purchase something, I might get paid a small commission.