How do I start an aff program

[OlRedEye]

Hi
Newbie - I have started marketing a new product on the web and would like to start an affiliate program- how do I go about this? Is there some exchange type site somewhere that I can list with? Have absolutely no aff experience and wondering what the pitfalls are?

[Vlad]

Hi and welcome to WW.
Did you try CJ? Might be what you're looking for.

[chrisnrae]

You can go indie (meaning it is managed by you/your company) or go with a bigger network like CJ or something.

Doing it yourself will likely be cheaper, but then you also need to worry about recruiting affiliates, making payments and possibly hiring someone to manage the program (also known as an affiliate manager).

With CJ, they do a lot of it for you (cut checks to affiliates, put your program in front of a lot of affiliates), but with a price attached.

Both have their advantages to a program owner. As an affiliate, I prefer indie programs, but that may just be me LOL.

[prhost]

I just set up an affiliate program for one of my sites with an affiliate tracking software that integrates with that site.

An option would be for you to do a search on affiliate tracking software and see if any suit you.

Good luck.

[kodaks]

OlRedEye-
Will you be paying affiliates on a per click basis, or a per sale basis?

[raymond4unc]

When a person sets up their own affiliate program, how do they put it out there for others to know it is available?

[chrisnrae]

Promote or die. ;) A lot of times you can hire an affiliate manager - usually, they will have a background in the affiliate industry, as well as connections that allow them to put your program in front of affiliates and more importantly, well performing affiliates. But, it is like hiring an SEO, not all of them are good. But, the ones that are can be worth their weight in gold. If you do it solo, you can use your own contacts. If you don't have any, you'll have to make some and do regular promotional tactics as well.

[Michael Anthony]

You can contact a known high producing affiliate and ask them to help set it up using their expertise and experience to make it convert well, then spread to a small group of sub affs, then launch on a network such as CJ when all the rough edges are rounded off.

That's how I've started a good number of my private programs, some of which are now hugely successful on the networks.

[OlRedEye]

Kodaks-
I was thinking on a per sale basis. Dunno if that would draw much interest from the aff comunity?
Per click I don't know what quality clicks i'll get.

Michael Anthony-
Maybe dumb question... maybe i'm getting old :( but how do I know a 'known' high producing affiliate and convince them to help set it up without charging me my remaining arm & leg?

[woop01]

If you want to just get your feet wet, I suggest using Sharasale. They are a lot smaller than CJ but have a lot lower start up cost as well. We're about to try to make the jump to CJ after being on Shareasale for a year to get more affiliates.

[edited by: eljefe3 at 4:41 am (utc) on Aug. 10, 2004]

[woop01]

There are also other forums that are much more dedicated to the details of affiliate marketing than WW. Unfortunately, we can't reference their name even if we have nothing to do with them and they are the reason we found about and subscribed to WW.