Mr Affiliate

Youve launched your affiliate program and everything is in place to track your affiliate sales. Affiliates are signing up but arent making as many sales as you might have hoped for. You know its not your product as youre still making sales yourself. So whats wrong? Why isnt Mr Affiliate making sales?

You must remember that Mr Affiliate is not only your affiliate, but has more than likely joined numerous other affiliate programs on the Internet. He obviously joined your program because he liked it, your product or service and the compensation plan.
But
time moves very fast in the Internet world and before Mr Affiliate has most probably even started marketing your site properly, he mayhave even joined yet another affiliate program that appealed to him.

There is certainly no shortage of affiliate programs on the Internet that are free and easy to join. Mr Affiliate wants to make money,thats why he joined your program. Unfortunately Mr Affiliate may not understand Internet marketing as well as you do. He may simply insert your banner onto his site and wait for sales.

So both of you are sitting there waiting for Mr Affiliate to start making sales. Thats your problem. This is a real shame. Mr Affiliate is obviously available, willing and able and if only he knew what to do, would gladly do it and thats down to you.

You need to train Mr Affiliate right away. You cant wait for Mr Affiliate to get motivated, you need to train Mr Affiliate. You cant afford to be complacent. The most successful affiliate programs do well because they have trained their affiliates. Their affiliates understand the program fully, they are supported and are kept in touch with. While youre sitting around waiting for Mr Affiliate to make a sale for you, he is being motivated by other affiliate programs and making sales for them.

Here are some practical steps to training Mr Affiliate.

1. Explain your program thoroughly before Mr Affiliate joins and include clear Terms and Conditions. This is your first opportunity to present your affiliate program benefits and compensation plan. Let your affiliates know what you expect from them and what they can expect from you.

2. Make sure you have numerous banners of different sizes and also text links with clear and easy to understand code. Your affiliates have different web sites, different designs, and different color schemes so make sure you give them enough choice to insert a suitable banner.

3. Supply your affiliates with classified ads and articles. Affiliates want to promote your program but they dont have as much time or knowledge to devote to your program as you do. By providing a range of ads that you know work and articles promoting your program for inclusion in e-zines, youll be making Mr Affiliates job a lot easier.

4. Let your affiliates know exactly where to/how to check their stats and if possible, set up your affiliate program to e-mail Mr Affiliate automatically whenever he makes a sale. Affiliates love receiving these e-mails!

5. Keep in touch with your affiliates on a regular basis. Whether its weekly or monthly is up to you, but be consistent. Be helpful to Mr Affiliate, be interesting and hell look forward to hearing from you.

6. Send your affiliates the URLs of places to promote your program. Keep it updated. Again, you dont want Mr Affiliate to have to waste time looking for places to promote, make it easy by providing him with this information.

7. Always answer any questions in a timely and courteous manner. Be personal and let Mr Affiliate know he is a valued member of your team.

8. Be prompt with your payments. Your affiliates have most probably worked hard for their sale/sales so reward them when you say you will. Theres nothing as motivating as receiving payment!

By following these simple steps Mr Affiliate will market your product easily and professionally with not that much more effort required. He will be making sales and will no longer just be Mr Affiliate, he will have become Mr Happy Affiliate Making Sales!

And if you can turn all your Mr Affiliates into Mr Happy Affiliate Making Sales, you yourself will go from being simply Mr Affiliate Owner, to Mr Successful, Lying-in-the Sun, Professional Affiliate Owner!

About the Author

Holly Janion is webmaster for Wades World Ltd, a UK web design and internet business solutions provider. For an example of Hollys work, the WWW Treasure Hunt, at http://www.wwwtreasurehunt.com is her latest creation. To contact Holly see details below.


webmaster@wadesworld.co.uk
http://www.wwwtreasurehunt.com