Affiliate programs [also known as Associate or Partnership Programs] are ways of getting others to advertise for you or, on the other side, to earn money advertising for others.
Administering Affiliate programs
Decide which type of program you want to utilize.
Click-thru - offering anywhere from $0.01 on up to $0.30 per click-thru
Referral-fee - offering a flat rate for referrals
Commission-based - offering a small percentage on commission earned based on a referral
Help Your Affiliates
Create banner ads (or have an Odesk Virtual Assistant do these for you) of common pixel sizes (468x60, 120x600, and 225x125) for affilates to use.
Create sample tweets, facebook status posts, and blog posts
Give clear concise information about amount the affiliate receives per sale or per lead, how to use afflilate link, how to signup and threshold (how often) of payout
Create sample/ actual Emails they can send
Create articles they can Post to website
Managing Your Affiliate Program
Set up a system of tracking referrals. Webmaster For Hire recommends using Clickbank. They pay your customers for you, manage the tracking and will add you to their marketplace.
The webmasters that choose your affiliate program will advertise your site bringing you more customers. Give them all the help you can to sell your product.
Set up a Terms of Use stipulating all rules and regulations for advertising your product.
Create a newsletter for the affiliates to keep them involved, excited and current on your offering(s).
Send checks out on time, typically Net 30.
Joining Affiliate programs
Choose a company that you have an interest in or that would be beneficial to your site's visitors.
Place the HTML code on your site with your own recommendation for the site [i.e. "I use this site and love it because.... or have found it to be very effective because...].
Be sure to read the Terms and Acceptance for the program.
Have an understanding of the payment procedures.
Most importantly, make sure that the HTML code you place on your site is exactly as the program specifies.
Find out what happens when [on a commission-based program] a customer returns the product for a full refund.
Keep in mind that if the program uses 'cookies' to track the referrals that 'cookies' can be denied by the visitors and you may lose those referral credits.
Create Wordpress site to build topic-focused content
Use all marketing strategies on site to drive traffic to site/link.
Find Affiliate Programs to Sell: (make sure to checkout the programs(s) that you are recommending so that they are not scams and you get in more trouble)
