How To Create A Successful, Profitable Relationship With Affiliates by Lynn Terry

Before you can create a successful relationship with your affiliates, it's important to understand the expectations upfront. Both yours and theirs. It is not the affiliate's job to sell your products. Their job is to pre-sell the product, and bring you new potential customers (traffic).

Conversions are your responsibility, both at first contact and in your follow-up process. And of course customer satisfaction and affiliate payments. Affiliates do like to get paid - on time. ;-)

Interact With Your Affiliates Publicly

You may not be able to keep tabs on every single affiliate in your program, but you definitely want to keep a finger on the pulse of your super affiliates.

Set up Google Alerts, groups in TweetDeck or HootSuite, a directory in your Feed Reader, or however it is most convenient for you to keep an eye on their promotions.

This allows you to enter the social media conversations, and/or the discussion within their blog comments, and provide additional support and credibility. Not only does this increase conversion rates, but it also strengthens your relationship with the affiliate – which will give them incentive to continue promoting for you.

Give Special Requests Serious Consideration

Super affiliates want a person they can talk to and work with directly. Someone who has the power to pull strings, make changes, and get things done. They usually have special requests, and you want to give these serious consideration. At the very least, always respond with the reason you can't fill that request.

To give you examples they may ask for special landing pages, exclusive special offers, unique coupon codes, or an interview. When you go the extra mile for an active affiliate, they'll go the extra mile for you.

Be A Team Player

Treat your top affiliates – your super affiliates – like partners. Consider them part of your team. Keep in mind that they spend their day interacting directly with your target market, or with a specific subset of your market. They will often have valuable feedback that could be as much an asset to your business as the sales they generate.

Your top performers are more than just affiliates, they are usually Market Leaders in their niche. Be available and let them know you are interested in working with them personally. Take very good care of them – and they'll feel comfortable that you'll do the same for the customers they send your way.

We've discussed why you need affiliates, where to find affiliates, how NOT to treat your affiliates and now - how to create successful relationships with your affiliates. I hope you've enjoyed this series, and see the value in creating personal (profitable) relationships with the super affiliates in your space!

About Lynn Terry

Lynn (@LynnTerry) has been working from home and online for more than 14 years, and is both a super affiliate and a professional blogger. Subscribe at http://www.ClickNewz.com for creative ideas and actionable tips you can use today!

   

The 2 Things You Should NEVER Do To Your Affiliates by Lynn Terry

In my last post, I explained just how beneficial affiliates can be to your business. But it's a two way street, and if you want to keep your affiliates motivated and engaged (selling your products!) there are two things you should never do...

1. Never Compete With Your Affiliates

Never, ever, ever compete with your super affiliates – especially not on their turf. If you enter an affiliate’s social media conversation on Facebook or Twitter, or you comment on their blog post, use your affiliate’s referral link to your site – not a direct link.

The minute a gaping black hole opens up that bypasses their referral link… is when you’ll lose them as a promotion partner.

On the flip side, if you do take the time to participate in their discussions and promotions you will win them over for life. You want to support your affiliates 100%. You can do this by setting up a Google Alert for your domain, brand or product name so that you can follow the buzz. When appropriate, offer to answer questions or thank them for reviewing your product.

2. Never Leave Your Affiliates In The Dark

It's important to keep your affiliates in the loop, particularly your top affiliates. Have a technical issue? Let them know. Changing your prices? Give them a heads up. Coming out with a new product? Give them a sneak peek and let them leak rumors about what's coming up.

You can really win your top affiliates over by letting them promote a new product before you even announce it publicly. Give them an edge to work with, and you'll have very loyal affiliates on your team.

Bonus Tip: Never ignore your affiliates. Communication is very important, particularly to your super affiliates. If you can't answer emails, tweets or facebook messages from your affiliates right away... hire someone who can.

Sending a potential super affiliate through a help desk loop and then responding with a canned answer is a surefire way to turn them off from working with you. Fortunately (for them) they can easily find someone else that will work with them directly: your competitors.

I've mentioned "super affiliates" a couple of times. Those are the top performers in your affiliate program - the top percent sending the majority of the traffic and sales. Go out of your way to work with them personally, while maintaining regular communication with the rest of your affiliates via autoresponder.

We've discussed why you need affiliates, where to find affiliates, and how NOT to treat your affiliates. In my next (and final) post I'll share the best ways to create extremely profitable relationships with them for long-term success...

About Lynn Terry

Lynn (@LynnTerry) has been working from home and online for more than 14 years, and is both a super affiliate and a professional blogger. Subscribe at http://www.ClickNewz.com for creative ideas and actionable tips you can use today!

   

How To Find and Recruit Affiliates For Your Affiliate Program by LynnTerry

If you have an affiliate program, your highest priority is to recruit active affiliates and get them to promote your product or service.

You may have already done everything you can think of to get your affiliate program in front of people, yet you're seeing very little response. And it’s a great opportunity! So why aren’t they biting?!

Just one or two super affiliates can out-perform the rest of your affiliates combined! As a super affiliate myself, I get a lot of requests to look at various affiliate programs. From my personal experience, I’ll share ways that you can recruit "super affiliates" successfully…

First, The Basic Groundwork...

There are three things you need to do upfront to make sure affiliates can find your affiliate program.

• Add your affiliate program to affiliate program directories
• Create an optimized page for “niche/keyword affiliate program” so your program shows up in Google searches
• Join and actively network at the top affiliate forums

If you haven't yet done these steps, they should be your top priority tasks. The first two will require a very small investment of your time upfront, but continue to pay off for years to come. The third is more time intensive, and can easily be outsourced to a dedicated Affiliate Manager if you prefer. Forum networking has major viral potential though, so it's worth the time invested. Make friends in the affiliate world, and you’ll get super-profitable referrals!

Finding Super Affiliates

Now that you've done the groundwork so that affiliates can find you, it's time for you to go out and find them.

The most obvious place to start is on Google. Take the top keyword phrases in your niche and do a search. Make a note of the paid advertisers, the bloggers, the websites, and the communities that show up in the top 20 results.

Check YouTube, and look for active affiliates or those with popular video channels in your niche. Search is going social, so you want active affiliates with video presence and/or social media skills.

Next, check Twitter. Use http://search.twitter.com to perform searches on your keyword phrases, your product/site names, your competitors and their product names, etc.

Find the people who are already talking on your topic. Whether they are a “super affiliate” yet or not, they are reaching your target market. And they are likely interested in ways to monetize that conversation.

Recruiting Super Affiliates

Once you find affiliates you want to work with, or the people in your niche with "reach", it's time to make contact and invite them to your affiliate program. These hand-picked recruits are generally busy people, and get bombarded with requests and opportunities. You'll want to plan your approach carefully.

First, contact them where you find them. And do it while the conversation is "hot". If you find them on Twitter, enter the conversation there or send them a DM (direct message). If you find their blog, contact them through their contact form at the blog. If they offer a number, pick up the phone and call.

You'll find that each marketer or affiliate has their preferred mediums and channels - figure that out, and contact them where they are most likely to respond (email, Facebook, Twitter, etc).

Do your research - get to know them before you shoot off a message. Address them by name. Include something personal, such as their great article on XZY or their top ranking for ABC. (forget copy & paste canned emails!)

Did I mention they are already successful and therefore super busy people?? Keep your messages short and simple. REALLY short and simple.

Do NOT bombard them with follow-up messages or phone-calls. If you send an email, DM them on Twitter, comment on their blog and leave a voice mail – all within 24 hours – they will likely never work with you out of fear you’ll harass customers they refer to you in the same way. Don't be annoying, be appealing.

If you can, offer them something extra. That might be a 2nd tier, an exclusive interview, first dibs at a new viral report, a coupon code to share, higher commission rate, etc. Anything that gives them an angle and an edge - and an incentive to seriously consider working with you.

Discovering or Creating Super Affiliates

New high performers appear on the affiliate leader boards all the time, so don’t limit yourself to known super affiliates. You may just discover the perfect affiliates for your program, and turn them into super affiliates yourself. ;)

There have been merchants who took a chance on me in the past, and went out of their way to help me succeed with their program – well before I was known as a super affiliate (under this name, or certain pen names).

Always give an affiliate the benefit of the doubt. You never know when or where you’re going to find your next top affiliate.

Stay tuned - in my next post I'll share the two things you should NEVER do to your affiliates...

About Lynn Terry:

Lynn (@LynnTerry) has been working from home and online for more than 14 years, and is both a super affiliate and a professional blogger. Subscribe at http://www.ClickNewz.com for creative ideas and actionable tips you can use today!

   

Top 3 Reasons Your Business Needs Affiliates - Now! by Lynn Terry

If you don't yet have an affiliate program for your products or services, now is the time to consider it. If you do have an affiliate program, but you're not actively working with the program and you're affiliates, you're really missing out.

Affiliates can be a huge asset to your company. And it doesn't matter if you're a small one-man operation or a large corporation. Here are the top three reasons you should consider working with affiliates to sell your products or services online:

1. Affiliates Cost Nothing Upfront. You Only Pay For Results.

Merchants often question the cost of affiliates, and whether they want to split profits in the form of commissions. Your affiliates are your marketing team, not an expense. Instead of paying an in-house marketing team for hours worked, you pay affiliates based on their performance only.

And guess what? Seasoned affiliates will out-perform an in-house marketing team all day long!

Affiliates will reach customers for you that you may not have reached otherwise, so your affiliates are actually generating more revenue for you instead of costing you money. And if they're not generating revenue for you... they're not costing you a dime!

2. Affiliates Create Awesome Buzz About You and Your Products!

Your top affiliates will go out of their way to talk about your products. They will create blog posts, start discussions on forums, start engaging social media conversations, and even take out paid advertising across the internet - on their own dime.

All of this buzz coming from a variety of sources is much more valuable to your company than you talking about your own product.

And it's not only buzz, it's also seen as "social proof" by your target market. When you talk, it's advertising. When they talk, it's buzz and social proof. And since you only pay based on performance (ie sales!) it's the best free advertising you can possibly get.

3. Affiliates Will Increase Your Market Reach Dramatically

Most business owners are limited by time or money, if not both. You can only achieve so much on your own, even if you employ a team of geeks. That being the case, you generally target a very specific sector of your market and spend most of your resources there.

Affiliates, on the other hand, will reach all the nooks & crannies throughout the internet. They fill in the gaps. Each affiliate will have their own approach, or target different sub-niches of your market, allowing you to effectively reach customers you may not have otherwise.

Each top affiliate you recruit will increase your reach exponentially.

As you can see, affiliates can be a huge asset to your business. Consider setting up an affiliate program right away. Or if you already have one, consider giving your affiliate program more time and attention. Working with affiliates is one of the fastest and easiest ways to take your business to the next level.

One of the problems most merchants experience after setting up an affiliate program... is getting affiliates. In my next post, I'll share ways for you to find and recruit active affiliates that will promote your products.

About Lynn Terry

Lynn has been working from home and online for more than 14 years, and is both a super affiliate and a professional blogger. Subscribe at http://www.ClickNewz.com for creative ideas and actionable tips you can use today!