What do Affiliates really want?

Having your own affiliate program can seem like a fast and easy way to boost your business, as having an army of commission only salespeople is obviously music to most business owner’s ears.

And rightly so, as an effective affiliate program can quickly, cost effectively and dramatically grow your business, probably better than any other method.

However, it takes expertise, hard work and most importantly the right offering to make an affiliate program truly work.

You can’t just provide your affiliate with a few links, then sit back and enjoy the deafening sound of cash registers ringing. The key to success lies in the support and resources you offer your affiliates, whatever level they are currently at.

Forrester Research shows that the average Affiliate program has about 10,000 Affiliates, but only 10-20 % of the affiliates actually participate or promote the program.

So why do so few affiliates that sign up actually promote the product? Why the huge disconnect?

Simple. Most Advertisers don’t provide their Affiliates with the help, support and resources they need to promote their products. So they sign up, look for resources and when they don’t find any, their excitement and motivation evaporates and off they go to find a program which gives them what they need.

Here are our 6 top features, switched on affiliates expect in a quality affiliate program:

1: Communication Leads to Community

The best way to keep top Affiliates loyal is to maintain a good relationship with them. Not just while they’re signing up, but ongoing.

For starters, it’s essential you offer a dedicated point of contact for affiliates and respond quickly. Don’t make them wait for answers and lose trust or you’ll lose them.

As many Affiliates sign up but then get side-tracked and never get around to promoting, (remember the disconnect?) you should also send regular emails to keep them engaged, ensure they’re on track AND to show your program is active.

As they move forward, you can’t presume they are up to date with your offers and new resources, so keep them informed of any program news.

Finally, a sense of community and open communication with Vendors can really build loyalty, so although this goes against the usual school of affiliate program thought, give them what they want. The long term rewards can be huge.

ClickSure believes in the power of communication, so unlike traditional networks, we allow Advertisers and Affiliates to communicate directly with each other using our in-house Messenger Service. It’s extremely rare but we believe open communication fosters trust, saves a ton of time when setting up campaigns and offers outstanding efficiency.

2: Technology

As Affiliate marketing is becoming more and more competitive in the marketing industry, data-analysis has become a crucial factor for Affiliates.  Marketing methods need in-depth evaluation in order for Affiliates to gauge their success and test and improve, to generate the best return on their investments.

Although there may be many individual reporting platforms available out there, the majority of Affiliate programs are now offering proprietary reporting and tracking technologies, in order to provide their Affiliates the opportunity to enhance their performance based on their sales analytics.

Obviously, you’ll be more successful if you also show affiliates how to use this technology effectively. Many veterans will be familiar with it, but be specific to yours and don’t forget, your new affiliates may have never seen this kind of resource before. Without help, it can seem overwhelming and become another reason for the 80% disconnect.

Affiliates also need reassurance that their marketing efforts are working and providing all the relevant sales data on their profile obviously helps that too.

So don’t even think of building your affiliate program without this essential resource. No-one wants to run their promo campaigns in the dark.

3: Competitive commissions and fast payouts

As an Advertiser, you need to work directly with your Affiliates to create a payment model that best fits your business.

99% of affiliates are in it for the money. So the higher the payout the more chance you have of attracting affiliates to your offer. On top of that most super affiliates spend a lot of money buying advertising, so the faster you can make payments to them, the better their cash-flow and the lower the risk for the affiliate.

Less risk means they are more likely to push your offers over affiliate programs offering inferior payment terms.

Take some time to research into what other Affiliate programs are offering in commissions. This would give you a better indication of the competition and also what payment terms you should offer to stay competitive.

For instance, Affiliate payment terms at ClickSure vary, as our Advertiser/Merchants select their own individual terms and payouts. What payout and terms you set is up to.

You have to try to get the balance right. See what others are paying as a starting point, but keep your payments really competitive, as it’s the most important thing to the majority of affiliates. The only exception is when your offer converts much better than your competitors, but remember your affiliates still have to pay for traffic, so keep those payout rates attractive.

Don’t go too far the other way and go overboard with the payments though, thinking you’ll clean up. If you don’t get your numbers right you could get an avalanche of sales you’ll end up making a loss on.

Keep in mind, however, it’s no coincidence that some of the best performing Affiliate Programs within the ClickSure marketplace offer the fastest payout terms, with most offering weekly payouts and some also offer private payouts for super affiliates.

It also makes sense to pay your affiliates well and as quickly as possible, because the payments could well be funding the next wave of traffic they send to your product.

4: The Art of Affiliate Incentives

One of the most popular methods to generate attraction is by offering affiliates a competition with a cash prize as a reward. These are especially popular during the festive season such as Christmas, as Affiliates are looking to earn quick cash around that time.

It’s also a good incentive for Affiliates to promote your offer. You may also attract top Affiliates with generous competitions to give yourself a competitive advantage in the Marketplace amongst all the other product owners.

Cash is obviously one of the most popular incentives. However, co-branded gifts can also work very well and still give you the opportunity of attracting additional business.

For example, run a ‘Win an iPad’ incentive but then brand the iPad so wherever the affiliate takes it your brand is on show.

You could also combine training events with incentives…

For example, win a trip to “office location” and “3 days intensive training with our marketing team”. This helps build relationships, gives your affiliate additional insights on how to drive business to your products and if you feature the winners experience in a video or post, you can also use it as a promotional opportunity for your next incentive.

Another effective way to incentivise Affiliates is to offer them a ‘money-can’t-buy’ reward. This can include VIP tickets to sold out events, sporting fixtures or even gifts and experiences.

There are many different options you can choose to reward your Affiliate from instant cash rewards to generous private commissions.

Test to find out which works best for you and how much you can offer to encourage affiliates to sign up.

5: In-depth product information

Always offer as much information as you can about your product as it would help Affiliates to understand the product better, in order to pre-sell and advertise to their traffic.

Affiliates are looking for products and services that match the content on the site, so the more information you give, the better judgment they can make as to whether the product is suitable for them or not.

Provide affiliates with as much information as possible so they have more knowledge to help pre-sell your products. Also, showing them the best ways to sell and where to generate sales, is important for keeping your affiliate marketing strategy aligned to your goals and product branding. For

For example, if someone has a Luxurious Skin Cream for Women, you don’t necessarily want affiliates targeting men with the product, unless it’s promoted as a gift idea for their partners or loved ones.

The more info you can supply, the better your affiliates can perform, so . . .

Give affiliates free samples, free demos or walkthroughs of the product/service.

Provide affiliates info on best traffic sources, customer demographics, best practices for promoting the product etc.

Send regular email newsletters to your affiliates, including tailored news of any new products you are launching.

Lastly, always keep your content fresh and remember to update and changes to the product as soon as possible.

6: What marketing materials should you provide?

Affiliates do not want to develop their own primary marketing materials. And why should they? They are promoting for you and increasing your ‘hands off’ sales, so give them the help they need.

Supplying your affiliates with free marketing material such as landing pages, banners, images email swipes etc. is a must.

Also important, if you want affiliates to use a great product image to show your product in the best light then provide them with images they can use. You do not want them cutting and pasting shady looking images that don’t show your product in all its glory.

Yes, it will take you time to create these resources, but it’s an investment, not a cost. By supplying a range of high-quality resources, your affiliates can hit the ground running and make an impact quickly.

Top Tip:

Keep your marketing materials simple as some Affiliates may be reluctant to use large images/ banner as it may affect the site load time.

It’s also better if YOU control the branding, quality and ‘voice’ of these resources, as some affiliates may get frustrated, create their own inferior examples and give the wrong message out regarding your brand.

Also, you are saving affiliates the time spent developing these materials themselves and instead they can focus on promoting your products straight away.

Source :http://clicksureblog.com

Six Tips for Money-Making Hobbies

Whether you knit, or write, or make photographs, or grow a vegetable garden, or tinker with cars, or build web sites, or collect ancient coins — you can make money from your hobby.

I’m not saying it’s possible to get rich by playing your violin at weddings, or by weaving baskets from pine needles, but earning money from a hobby is a nice way to get paid for doing something you would do anyhow.

This article is the first in a series that will explore how to turn a hobby into a source of side income. In the weeks and months ahead, I’ll describe general best practices, discuss potential pitfalls, and provide case studies culled from my friends, and from the stories of readers like you. (If you’d like to share your experience, please drop me a line.)

First, by way of introduction, here are some ground-rules for making money from hobbies.

1.Focus on something you love:
Pursue something you’re passionate about. Choose a hobby that you enjoy, and find a way to make money from it. Don’t choose a hobby simply because it might make money and then dive into it with that aim in mind. You should be doing this hobby because you love it; any side-income should be secondary.

I love to write. I was struggling with debt. I began to read personal finance books, and then to summarize what I’d learned for my personal web site. From this, Get Rich Slowly was born. Now I make over a thousand dollars a month writing about personal finance. But I didn’t start this for the money — I started this because I was passionate about the subject.

Keep it fun. Don’t let it become a chore.

2.Be creative:
If you’re interested in making money from a hobby but don’t know where to start, think outside the box. What skills do you have that others don’t? Define the term “hobby” broadly. Find something that you can do that most others cannot, something for which other people might be willing to pay.

At my day job, I have a customer whose wife loves to cook. She turned this hobby into a part-time job as a personal chef. She prepares meals in advance for wealthy clients. She spends a few hours a day preparing a week-long menu for people who pay her handsomely for her time.

I have a friend who likes to travel. One day he discovered that he could subsidize his journeys by writing about the places he visited, and by taking photographs. Now every couple of years he takes an all expense paid vacation. He’s doing something he’d do anyhow, and it doesn’t cost him a dime.

3.Don’t force it:
Your hobby will not make you rich. In most cases, it won’t even net you enough to allow you to quit your day job. It’s quite possible, however, to earn enough money to make the hobby self-sustaining, to keep yourself in new tools and equipment.

My brother builds speakers and works with audio equipment as a hobby. He makes some money at it. (“Spending money,” he says.) Jeff notes, “It’s not hard to make money from a hobby. What’s difficult is trying to turn it into an actual business. Moving from a hobby to a business is a pain-in-the-ass.”

Often when you try to take your hobby to the next level, the joy goes out of it. Suddenly the extra income just isn’t worth it. When I tried to turn my computer-building hobby into a business, I hated it. There’s a balance to be achieved, and if you can find it, you can have a fun while earning extra income.

4.Don’t underestimate your ability:
It’s easy to discount your abilities. When you truly love something, your prolonged experience can give you skills and knowledge that you don’t appreciate.

For example, I have a love for early 20th-century American pop culture. My brain is filled with facts and anecdotes about once-famous recording artists. I sometimes find myself under the impression that everybodyknows who Billy Murray was, or is familiar with the song “Ukulele Lady”. But this isn’t common knowledge — it’s specialized.

The same concept holds true for you and your hobby. Know a lot about Napoleonic warfare? Start a blog about Admiral Nelson. Spend time tinkering with bicycles? Open a small-scale bike repair service. Not everybody knows what you know. Don’t sell yourself short.

5.Market yourself:
This can be difficult. In order to actually earn income, you need customers. But just as most people have a tendency to underestimate their abilities, they also tend be uncomfortable with self-promotion.

There’s no shame in mentioning your money-making hobby to friends, family, and neighbors. You needn’t be pushy. Just mention it at natural points in the conversation. If you’ve decided to do some woodworking for cash, mention this when your uncle mentions he wants to buy a new bookshelf.

Marketing can be subtle, but it’s an absolute necessity if you hope to earn money from your hobby. People need to know you’re available before they can hire you.

6.Hone your skill:
Practice, practice, practice. The more time and energy you’re willing to devote to your hobby, the better you will become. The better you become, the more likely that you’ll be able to earn money from it.

Photography is a terrific example. If you’re willing to make a hundred images a day, you can improve your skills quickly, especially if you teach yourself about composition. You may never become a professional photographer this way, but you can develop your skill to the point where you can sell images to stock photo agencies, or enter (and win) photography contests.

Some people are born with natural talent. Most of us have to work at it.

Conclusion
Why should you care about making money from hobbies? Remember: the wealth equation has two sides. You accumulate wealth by reducing expenses and by increasing income. Often we only focus only on our careers when it comes to “increasing income”. But there are other ways to make money. One of the best is to harness a hobby.

This is an especially good technique if you’re stuck in a low-wage job. And sometimes a person can turn a money-making hobby into a career. Who doesn’t want a job doing something he loves?

Future articles in this series will cover topics such as:

• Making money from photography
• Using the web to make money from a hobby
• Making the leap to full-time
• Creating web sites about your hobby
• Teaching your hobby (thanks, Donna!)
• And, of course, plenty of anecdotes from people who have turned their hobbies into money-making ventures

Source : http://www.getrichslowly.org