How do you attract an keep quality affiliates?

[akdiver]

Hi Guys,

Next month I will be launching a new site and I hope to have affiliate marketing as one of my major marketing strategies.

If you need any background info the site is a marketplace and takes a commision on sales. I am happy to offer affiliates up to 90% of any commisions earnt but I would prefer to keep the commision payout as low as possible. However I realised great affiliates deserve great rewards.

So my question is how do I find great affiliates. Should I use an affiliate service such as CJ or clickbank??

As affiliates what do you look for how would you get recruited?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[blogspot]

try adwords

[narsticle]

Originally Posted by akdiver

I would prefer to keep the commision payout as low as possible.

This is not a good way to attract quality affiliates.

[akdiver]

Originally Posted by narsticle

This is not a good way to attract quality affiliates.

I realise that. But high commissions are not the only factor for quality affiliates. I think they want to know conversions etc.

Thier must be some quality affiliates who can tell me how they get recruited or choose the various affiliate programs.

[BDazzler]

What type of thing(s) are you selling on your site? 90% of what?

[blogspot]

you can buy sigs to.

[depotgang]

You want affiliates. Make it interesting. You may have to bribe a few bigger names, they will only market worthy opportunities.

I would set up a two tier commission system...one for JV Partners and one for every other affiliate as well as customers. Butterfly Script or other like scripts are easy to use for this.

You need to make the commission rate AT least 50%. Raise your price if you have too.

Good luck

[akdiver]

Thanks for the advice.

I am taking commision from an online auction place. So they get a % of the commision we make.

So I can make the commision as high as needed since thier is no cost involved on my behalf.

@ depotgang, Whats a JV partner and how do i find the "bigger players" to bribe. I am very new to affiliate marketing and appreciate the help.

Do you recommend me using a affiliate manager? And if so do you recommend an affiliate manager?

Thanks for your help so far

[ABC_Cel]

I've done affiliate managing for 5 years, and it really depends on what type of product your trying to get traffic for. If it's something exclusive, you'll definitely have a lot of takers. You're going to have to find contacts for the affiliates you want to go after. How are you planning on marketing, CPA, CPC, CPM? email, banners, search? This all makes a difference. I've done CPA managing for 3 years and it seemed that a lot of those affiliates wanted exclusive. I'm now doing Search/CPC and it's all about bid prices. So, really it depends on your market.

[BDazzler]

Originally Posted by akdiver

Thanks for the advice.
...Whats a JV partner ..?

If I may , even though you didn't adress this to me ... JV Stands for "Joint Venture" it's someone you team up with for your mutual benefit.

For example, I had a JV With Mike Steup to promote JV Responder Pro. He has a big mailing list. I gave him a bigger commision and permission to discount the price, and the privilage of being "first to market" with this new product.

[CPAEJoshT]

It might make more sense for you to sign up as an Advertiser with an affiliate network rather than try to administer your own program. That way you don't have to worry about paying a ton of people and making sure they are all compliant with can-spam and all applicable laws.

Josh Todd
Affiliate Manager
jtodd at cpaempire dot com

[xmcp123]

There are a few things people look for. Some keep them coming, some get them to show up in the first place

1. Decent Payout - If I'm selling a $90 product I know only cost $10 to make, you can bet your ass I'm not dealing with a $5.00 commission.
2. Conversion Rates - Truly are the most important. Split test your landing pages like crazy on your own, and give us the result. I don't want to be your test dummy, and I dont want to promote a page that hasnt been tested properly
3. Don't Be Anal - Some places (like SinglesNet for example) are CONSTANTLY looking for a reason to not pay affiliates. Let us do our thing. None of this "you can't outbid or outrank me" crap.
4. Get on a Decent Network - Depending on the product type, you may want to go to different places. Large stores=CJ. EBook bullcrap=Clickbank. Individual products? Check out advaliant(they're awesome) then some of the larger directtrack neworks like copeac. From there it will get syndicated elsewhere.

[tiger325]

pay well and answer emails promptly. people will work harder for someone that they feel is really on their side and trying to help them make money. that way its a win win situation. help them = they help you

[digimac]

if you are an auction site them really its all about the initial customer - try and structure your program so the affiliate benefits from repeat sales made on your site generated by their initial customer referal. remember you can scale these so it decreases over time or for volume of sales.

there are specific affiliate marketing forums and I would advise you to promote there.

can you work via an affiliate network as you will probably built up the momentum quicker.

[akdiver]

Wow thanks for some of the great tip guys.

I was thinking of going with clixgalore so that they could promote the program to thier affiliates as well as cover paying affiliates etc.

Joint venture sounds promising but I think finding affiliates that would be worthy of making a special deal with.

I plan to pay per conversions (sales) and have a repeat commision on the users activities for X years or forever.

What about affiliate managers? Has anyone had any good experiences with using them?

Thanks for your help guys

[ShamsiOwnz]

post o webmaster forums,its filled with affiliates wanting jobs!

[akdiver]

Really I assume any affiliate having success would not be looking for a job in a webmaster forum. Anyone else agree with me or do you thinnk that webmaster forums may have quality affiliates looking for opportunities?

[BDazzler]

Originally Posted by akdiver

Really I assume any affiliate having success would not be looking for a job in a webmaster forum. Anyone else agree with me or do you thinnk that webmaster forums may have quality affiliates looking for opportunities?

I don't necessarily agree with that. Affiliate programs go up and down. I used to make a ton of money from mortgage leads, but the competition went up and the payout went down and it was no longer profitable.

So, I had to move on ...

Any affiliate making money knows that the program will eventually change, so they're always looking for a good "new thing".

I posted a thread a while back ... got some good feedback, not a lot, but what I got was good ..

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=934644

[Lasvegaspi]

Do you have a list of webmaster forums that might have good affiliates?
I have a great niche program http://www.emailrevealer.com/affiliate.php and if I met the right affiliates I'd be willing to increse the commissions on some of my more popular services.

[AMFM]

Really I assume any affiliate having success would not be looking for a job in a webmaster forum. Anyone else agree with me or do you thinnk that webmaster forums may have quality affiliates looking for opportunities?

I disagree. Although you may not find many candidates for affiliates in webmaster forums the ones that you do find I think will be good. The key to running a good affiliate program is to have good affiliates, and a good webmaster should always be on the lookout for opportunities that would be a good fit for their site.