Notice the proviso - "if you have a great product". Armand Morin says that many Internet Marketers create good products but they fall short of being great. You need to ask yourself:



"How can I make my product stand out from the competition?"

"How can I give my product the WOW factor?"

You want your product to be so good that people will tell others about your product without compensation. Recall an occasion when you experienced a product or service that you just couldn't help but tell people about it.

At this point you may be scratching your head thinking how can I make my product great? Often, this boils down to doing something that your competitors are not doing or are unwilling to do.

Also, this is one occasion where thinking small, rather than big, can be to your advantage because it is in the attention to detail that you will be able to make your product outstanding. You will be amazed at how small changes that you probably think don't matter very much can result in significant increases to your conversion rates and your income.

So, if you have a great product you should definitely consider setting up an affiliate program. Just imagine what a sales force of 10, 20 or even 100 or more all promoting your product and or service can do to increase your profits as opposed to you going it alone.

CAUTION!

Armand Morin advises that before you even think of starting an affiliate program you MUST know the conversion figures for your website. This is a question that any affiliate worth their salt will want to know.

Now a 1-2% conversion rate is okay but make those small changes, tweak and improve your opt-in page, your sales letter, your graphics, etc. and push your conversion rate to 3-5%. Now you have the foundation for developing your own affiliate sales force.

Now when you set up an affiliate program please don't just give your affiliates a link and say "Good hunting". Give them a range of promotional tools to use - emails, blog posts, articles, reviews, banners, text ads, etc. It will help them get started immediately and without a range of promotional tools to start out with (I say "start" because your affiliates will want to change and personalise many of these promotional materials) your affiliates will become discouraged and look for better affiliate programs.

So here's the thing. You need a great product and an affiliate program to match. You also need to pay generous commissions. Forget the measly 5% - who wants to put in all that work for such little reward? The best affiliate programs will pay you upwards of 50% of the product price. Now you're talking! And it's worth it to you because even if you only get 50% of your asking price, it's a sale you may not have otherwise made. Plus you get a new customer that you can continue to build a relationship with and market to. Affiliate programs can help you to build a highly responsive list FAST!

You also want to pay your commissions on a regular basis. I know of one affiliate program that pays on a daily basis. You make a sale and "kerching!" - you've got money in your account. In this way good affiliates can make money fast and that's a great motivator.

Another motivator is to have a competition for your affiliates. They just love the friendly rivalry. Competitions work best for product launches and for items that have a limited shelf life such as seminars or other events because obviously you can't sell tickets for an event that is finished. So get some fabulous prizes and keep your affiliates posted of changes in the ranking tables. It's interesting to watch the jostling of positions as the competition unfolds and to sometimes see a late starter surge to the front.

It also creates a learning experience for your affiliates because they get to see who the top affiliates are and the methods they use. Now while blatantly copying their methods may not be to an affiliate's advantage, seeing how others approach that particular campaign can give them new ideas of things that they can try out next time. Analysing these case studies will also help you to improve your marketing campaigns.

However, I'm sure you can see that while having an affiliate program is a great way to increase traffic to your website and boost your sales, that managing it can be quite time-consuming. The solution is to have an Affiliate Manager. If your cashflow is somewhat limited to start with, you could simply offer them a higher commission on their sales.

Even with an Affiliate Manager it is important that you remain involved in your marketing campaign. It's important for you to build your relationship with your prospects, customers and affiliates but having an Affiliate Manager will help to free up your time so that you can do this more effectively and, of course, start thinking about your next great product.