The interface I built our affiliate programme into was already a pleasure to work with, making the affiliate programme more appealing just in the looks department alone. The rest has been a steady learning curve. Here are some pointers for first-timers:
This first point is the most important foundation for any affiliate programme to run smoothly. Know your product. Work out your commission structure, how much you can afford to pay your affiliates, how often and by what means. Have a look at your competitors as a guideline but make your own statement.
A very important matter you should take care of next is the legal documentation in the form of your programme's terms and conditions. It is easier to take care of this once you have the commission structure worked out. Lawyers speak a different language to most of us, and they know how to best safeguard you and your business.
Look at what your competitors are doing and how they are doing it. A good place to find your competition is in various affiliate directories. Spend time getting to know other sites and most importantly your own. Remember that your website has its own personality and that should be transmitted through every aspect and page of your site, even in the affiliate programme. So researching also means getting to know your own website, spotting its own faults and making overall changes to better serve all aspects of its functionality.
Use tools such as WordTracker to find which words will better your programme's chances of being pulled in organic searches. Incorporate as many keywords and keyphrases into your copy, banners, text links and/or contextual ads as possible without making the copy unreadable. If you do not have a professional copywriter at hand I suggest you source one. It is vitally important to drive as much traffic to your site as effortlessly as possible. Optimise your entire website if it hasn't been done already.
You don't have to fork out loads of hard earned notes on advertising. That would defeat the purpose as you can't then afford to pay your affiliates which then means no affiliates! Use your own website as a canvas to advertise your affiliate programme. Look for those open spots here and there that could help you more than you realise. Request advertising space from your reciprocal links. Barter a little advertising space by making them an affiliate and give them the commission.
Once your affiliate programme has been tested, tweaked and adjusted in all the right places you have to set out on that long road of submitting the programme to the major affiliate programme directories. There are hundreds out there and you may choose to take the easy route and purchase a package that will automatically submit your programme to 40 of the major directories, or you can do the submissions yourself. Your budget, time and dedication dictate in this regard. The directories are fairly easy to submit to and they all ask more or less the same information. Have all your information handy so that you don't waste time looking for it.
Your affiliates are important to you so treat them with the respect they deserve. Yes, they want to make money but honour their requests and make it as easy as possible to be your affiliate. Give them as much information without them having to ask you for it. One thing affiliates love are real-time stats!
Good management is key. If you are not managing the programme yourself, you need someone who is capable of dealing with not only the technical but also the administration aspects of your programme.
Allow for criticism. It might be difficult but believe that all criticism is good news because it means you can improve and be better than you were before. Take the points made, digest them, research the problem and rectify it as soon as possible. Good comments taste so much sweeter but just think how much sweeter it is not to have anything to criticise negatively because you've accepted past comments and learnt from them.
