A Complete Guide to Setting Up Your Own Affiliate Marketing Program

Are you one of those people who are interested in earning some extra income with an ROI of 1200% and that is for every dollar you invest you get back 13. Then you have come to the right place. Resume that all the work is done for the system to set up then it would be highly easy to maintain and just let more money coming to your account. That would be one hell of a dream to come to right?

I don't know about you but I would certainly love to have everything in hand. By reading the above paragraph, you must have understood that I am of course talking about an affiliate program and that too running your own affiliate program. Of course, there are a lot of things such as what would a potential affiliate look at when deciding on what kind of products and services to promote, what kind of affiliate management software is available, and a lot more.

But first things first

What is an affiliate marketing?

A performance based marketing that involves people who are marketers and brands who want to sell their products and services through a partner.

In affiliate marketing, you as the merchant will decide how much commission you want to say your affiliates when they make a sale and only when they make a legitimate sale.

How many affiliates are there across the globe and how has it evolved over the years?

According to a research, online affiliate marketing income has significantly shown some growth from euros 8 million in extra income for companies in 2012 €2 13 million in the year 2013.

The other essential aspect of the affiliate marketing is that the return on investment ROI for companies and merchants has increased to 21% every year.

Before you start anything to set up your own affiliate program you first need to understand the costs that are involved

The very first thing that you need to understand in affiliate marketing is that they would be usually three types of costs that are involved.

1.  Management costs --  You would require some professional such as a program manager to keep tabs and operate affiliate program efficiently.

2.  Platform costs --  For running an affiliate program, you would certainly be going to require software a platform that would help with your day to day functions.

3. Creative costs -- You would need a person we can design creative material such as banners, innovative videos, and much more.

Are there any recommended affiliate marketing software program and networks?

--  Lead dyno

--  Has Offers

--  Affiliate Pro

--  Cake

Well, these are only some of the best affiliate management software platforms, there are many of other great softwares that can efficiently run your affiliate program.

For affiliate networks

-- ShareASale

-- ClickSure

-- LinkShare

These are only a sample best affiliate networks, there are many other potential networks that you can take consideration into. So do your research and pick the one that exactly can serve your affiliate program needs and requirements.

Knowing what commissions are and how much to pay

About commissions, you first need to understand that there are two types of models on which the commission is usually based.

1. Paying commission on a per sale basis
2. Paying Commission on per lead basis

The first method is widely used in the affiliate marketing industry. When you pay your periods there commission, you can choose to.

A)     Increase your sale prices. With this method, you can shine your affiliates' commission. Let me explain. $20 t-shirts are now raised to be $21.20. Even though your affiliates make 12%, your cost will remain as they were.

B)     Your prices remain the same. Without changing your prices,  you can pay your failures commission out of your profit margin.  Since there would be no extra expenses that would be born the customer and also if your affiliates are good enough then the reduced profit margin of trade off will be greater in the case of inbound customers.

Now comes pay per lead. This method of commission payment is usually kept for markets where leaves are generated without much effort and the item is either simple to sell or the consumer has an immediate requirement.

Launching and running your affiliate program

It is now time to launch your affiliate program. But make sure you have the kind of affiliates you require for your program otherwise it would be nothing but a dumb idea. Because at the end of the day, you will not make any sale without your affiliates.

Recruit affiliates for your program

Hiring affiliates for your affiliate program are mostly about saying visible and active on the Internet. So online places like blogs and affiliate forums are where you should be active and visible. One way to get affiliates for your program is by running a PPC campaign. And the other way is by joining the best affiliate programs in your network to get an idea about who are the best affiliates in the market, how do they promote, and much more. Now use that information and make an offer they can't refuse.

Now the next step is contacting them directly. Explain to them what you do and what your affiliate program is about and finally what kind of offer you have for them.

Getting super affiliates into your affiliate program

Apart from your normal team of affiliates, you should also have this special kind of theme - Super affiliates. These are marketing Gurus that can easily handle and get you 50 or even more percent of your income. These can include stuff like lead-gen, coupon, etc.

Be prepared

Whatever offer you are going to make to your failures, make sure you include things like innovative collateral, conversion rates, commissions to your existing traffic, and related stuff.  Usually, super affiliates will not get on board soon after you approach them. They will test your affiliate program to check how it works in their niche. In case they figure out it is not that effective or suitable for their target audiences then they will simply drop out. So you need to ensure that you have everything in place when you approach them.