| 5 Trends in Affiliate
Marketing By Linda Woods
1. Doesn't Matter What You Call Them
Affiliates are our marketing partners, our outside sales
force, part of our valuable sales channel. Choose a name that
appeals to your industry's lingo.
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Partners |
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Resellers |
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Representatives |
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Outside sales staff |
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Publishers |
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Distributors |
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Affiliates |
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Marketing associates |
2. Value Quality over Quantity
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The days of mass affiliations are
over. The success of your affiliate program has
absolutely no relation to how many affiliates you have.
The only true measure of success is how productive they
are. Period. |
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Choose your partners carefully
and work with them personally |
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Target, Recruit, and Reward hand
picked partners |
3. Get Creative with Linking
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Content! Relevant articles with
embedded links |
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Endorsement paragraphs ready to
go in emails or in "featured" boxes |
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Email ready 6 - 10 line ads
professionally written |
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'Deal of the Week' with a
dynamically changing featured product |
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Auto-responder "For more info"
link that delivers an info packed email |
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Place a text phrase directly
under a standard banner |
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Vertical skyscrapers and other
oversized adverts |
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Product centric banners, niche
oriented - link to inside pages |
4. Use Hybrid Deals
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Get more creative and
customize deals for good partners |
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What do they need to
succeed? Sub Ids? Coupons? Do it! |
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Even major CPM based
sites do CPM +CPA deals |
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Tailor the offer, the
payout and the link to the site's strengths (A standard
10% offer is NOT for everyone) |
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Some give you great leads for
long term marketing |
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Some high volume but only 1 type
of product |
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Some have funky sites, but loyal
large subscribers |
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Some do great with freebies,
contests |
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Some want only very classy
graphics & very high % |
5. Be Trustable and Credible
Be sure to state in your Affiliate FAQ, exactly how, when
and on what kind of transaction your affiliates will be paid
on exactly, and stick to it, no matter what.
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Join Affiliate Union & IAFMA.org |
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Build credibility (Veri-Sign/Veri-Trust) |
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Use a Trust Account for
commissions |
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Always tell the truth to your
affiliates |
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Always list your company's Full
Address, Phone Contacts and Names of Principals |
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