Posted on: 03 December, 2001
Author: Merle
What's the quickest way to increase your website sales ... your reach on the Internet all at the same time?If you said with your own ... program, you would ... An ... (or affi What's the quickest way to increase your website sales andextend your reach on the Internet all at the same time?If you said with your own associate program, you would becorrect. An associate (or affiliate program as they are some-times called) allows others to to sell your products/services and receive a commission on each and every sale orclick. Just think of having a sales force that can growas big as you'd like... and you only pay them when andif they bring you a paying customer. Make no mistake,affiliate programs are powerful tools that can rapidly improve your online sales.Associate programs can be set up in a variety of ways ranging inexpensive to pricey, depending on the route youwish to take. The important thing is to pick the one thatsuits your needs and your budget.First things first: What are your options for setting upyour own program? Glad you asked....some people "pay per click," crediting their associates a certainamount every time someone clicks through on theiraffiliate banners or links. But I prefer "pay per sale," which means that you only pay out when someone clicks through and actually makes a purchase.In this way you're not just paying for traffic but foractual results, which is the sale.You basically have two options for setting up your ownprogram: Purchase software or use a third party service.The nice thing about a third party service is they manageall the accounting issues, including click-tracking andsending your associates their commission checks, too. This takes a large load off of you so you can spend yourtime doing more productive tasks... but this luxurydoesn't come cheap. Let's examine some of your options:3rd Party Associate Services:1) Clicktrade.com: http://www.ClickTrade.comOutsource your affiliate program to ClickTrade and they'll take care of everything from tracking topaying your affiliates. Your program can be set upon a pay per lead or pay per sales basis, they do charge 30% for all of their hard work and a $500.00initial deposit.2) Clickbank.com: http://www.ClickBank.comAnyone who sells information products onlinecan easily set up an affiliate program withClickbank. Each of your affiliates will need to have a Clickbank account (which is free)so they can be set up with a special linkfor tracking their sales. They accept the payment for you by credit card and you'll becharged a percentage of each sale. Simpleand easy. Clickbank accounts cost 49.95 foryou to accept credit cards through them then1.00 plus 7.5% of each sale made.3) Affiliate Shop: http://www.AffiliateShop.comNo software to be installed; just cut and paste a few lines of HTML code on your site to get yourprogram up and running. Some of the features includepay per click, pay per sale, accept or reject affiliates who wish to join and much more. Flat charge for set up of 395.00 then you'll have to paya monthly fee of 45.00.Software Options:You'll want to make surewhatever you buy offers the ability to track realtime stats. If you'll be integrating it with yourexisting shopping cart, make sure they are compatible.1) Affiliate Tracking: http://www.AffiliateTracking.comYou can buy or lease their software which runs on theirserver. Choose the basic package or add ontheir check paying and promotion modules. Basic set up fee of 75.00 plus 34.95 per month. Simpletemplates are available to get you up and runningquickly.2) Affiliate Software: http://www.AffiliateSoftware.netPro-Track is inexpensive and easy to set up. Presentlyit only runs on UNIX servers. Pricing starts at 695.00 for set up on a single domain. Very powerful with many options.3) My Affiliate Program: http://www.hypertracker.com/go/msmerle/article/You design the look and feel of your program and how much you want to pay out. Simple seamless integration with your website. Easy to pay your affiliates withsimple Quickbooks integration. You pay a set price forthe software plus a small application hosting fee.Pricing starts at only 499.00 plus 50.00 monthly hostingfee.4) Ground Break: http://www.GroundBreak.comIf you're at all good at configuring CGI scripts you maywant to look at downloading this script and doing it yourself.If you need help with CGI, contact [email protected] -- his work and rates are excellent.Ground Break can be set up to work on yourserver quickly. Presently only works on Unix platformand cost 200.00. Can easily be integrated with most Perl based shopping carts. Your program can beset up to pay either per lead or per sales. As you can see, the options for setting up your ownassociate program are numerous. It will cost you sometime and money, but in the end it'll give you a powerful sales force which will extend your reach on the Net. Whatever program you choose, make sure it's easy to setup and user friendly so you won't lose peoplebefore they even get started. In part II of thisarticle we'll examine some ways of promotingyour newfound affiliate program. Article Tags: Sales Force, Associate Program, Affiliate Program Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com