Changing faces of affiliate programs?

Written by Chuck McCullough


Continued from page 1

Don't get me wrong, I'm not condemning affiliate programs...my entire site is dedicated torepparttar topic. I just want you to know that some companies are starting to look at new methods of rewarding you for sending them customers. After all, you are a salesman for them. How many brick-and-mortar companies do you know of that will have a salesperson make a sale, pay them their commission, and then never pay them another cent for future business from that same customer?

Why shouldrepparttar 102590 Internet be any different? It shouldn't...and program administrators are finally figuring that out.

There are many companies that will trackrepparttar 102591 visitor that came from your site, and credit you forrepparttar 102592 sale even if they don't purchase something untilrepparttar 102593 next day, or week, or month. Others will make that visitor your lifetime customer. If they come back two years later and buy something, you will get a commission for that.

A good example of this is Ken Evoy's 5 Pillar Affiliate Program. If you sell one of your visitors a copy of his book: "Make Your Site Sell!"( http://www.sitesell.com/helpmakemy.html ), you will not only get a commission for that sale, you will also get a percentage of all future sales from that customer, no matter what product or service they purchase.

A new idea being offered by companies such as Vstore ( http://affiliatematch.com/vstore ), is to allow your visitors to buy products without ever leaving your site. This means thatrepparttar 102594 visitor hasrepparttar 102595 time to spend on YOUR site, and get to know what excellent content you have to offer, and to hopefully return to YOUR site for future purchases.

This concept allows you to sell products such as magazines, gifts, luggage, hats, cooking accessories from your site, without having to give uprepparttar 102596 customer that you worked so hard to get.

Here is an example ofrepparttar 102597 power of this idea: I have a site that gives tips and hints for those hoping to become Microsoft Certified. An excellent product for me to sell from that site is books. Everyone studying for this certification will need books at some point or another to help them passrepparttar 102598 exams. They come to my site for information, and I sell them a couple of books while they are there. Does pretty well for me, but can I quit my day job? Not exactly. I get a great deal of traffic...highly targeted traffic at that.

I should be rich! I'm not. Problem is, they visit my site, I do my best to sell them onrepparttar 102599 idea that they will need books to help them study forrepparttar 102600 exams, then I send them off to Amazon, and they're gone. If I'm lucky, they might remember my site when they get ready for their next exam. But chances are that they will still haverepparttar 102601 Amazon shipping box sitting on their desk, and will go directly to them to purchaserepparttar 102602 additional books.

So what can you do about it? Look for programs that will compensate you for future sales, or give you credit forrepparttar 102603 salerepparttar 102604 next day, or month after they first visited them from your site. Or, look for programs that allow you to sell products directly from your site, withoutrepparttar 102605 visitor ever having to leave.

Chuck McCullough is the owner of http://AffiliateMatch.com offering FREE articles, tips, hints, and real-world advice on how to make money with your website. Visit his site or join his FREE newsletter, The AffiliateMatch Informer by sending a blank email to mailto:newsletter@affiliatematch.com


How to Create a Lifetime Commissions Affiliate Program

Written by Christopher Pearce


Continued from page 1

This field can be anything you want, likerepparttar customer's surname plusrepparttar 102589 last 5 digits of their credit card, their name and phone number, or any other combination you can think of.

When a sale is made this field is compared with a table that contains a list of these fields andrepparttar 102590 affiliate that referred them. If it finds a match, it awardsrepparttar 102591 due commission.

If it doesn't find a match, it then looks for an affiliate ID inrepparttar 102592 cookie and makes a new entry torepparttar 102593 lifetime identifier database.

A simple, yet highly effective system. Database tracking isrepparttar 102594 most reliable way to track inrepparttar 102595 long term.

I highly recommend MYAP withrepparttar 102596 LifeTime Commissions module for lifetime tracking.

My Affiliate Program Software: http://www.myaffiliateprogram.com

------------------------------------ Ultimate Affiliate ------------------------------------

Ultimate Affiliate is a good PERL software suite for UNIX servers. Ultimate Affiliate tracks by cookie, IP address, and can produce dynamic or static web pages that haverepparttar 102597 ID ofrepparttar 102598 referring affiliate embedded in all internal URLs. All your affiliates' details are stored in a MySQL database.

With a knowledge of PERL and HTML you can customize virtually any page created byrepparttar 102599 software.

This software can easily handle recurring commissions, and has graphical stats for both you and your affiliates. It can handle up to twelve tiers of commissions.

I recommend you do not pay out on more than two tiers. More than two tiers is multi-level marketing, which generally has a bad image onrepparttar 102600 Internet because it attracts spammers. MLM products also tend to be over- priced to pay forrepparttar 102601 many tiers of commissions

Ultimate Affiliate: http://www.groundbreak.com

================================================ Give your affiliatesrepparttar 102602 right tools forrepparttar 102603 job ================================================

One thing that really makes some programs stand head- and-shoulders aboverepparttar 102604 rest is real-time tracking that shows affiliatesrepparttar 102605 conversion rates for their various links.

That means affiliates can see which of their various links are performing and get an idea why, and what links aren't and how they could be improved.

Affiliates should be able to seerepparttar 102606 number of click- throughs to each of their different links,repparttar 102607 number of sales that each link has made, andrepparttar 102608 conversion rate for each link should be calculated for them.

This enables them to figure out how to improve their links, and thus make more money for themselves, and for you.

They should also be able to setrepparttar 102609 landing page for these links, so that they can link to specific products.

Affiliates who link to and promote specific products are a lot more successful than those who simply promote your site in general.

The shorter and less your links look like referral URLsrepparttar 102610 better. Some people recognize affiliate URLs, and are suspicious of them.

Considerrepparttar 102611 following (imaginary) URLs:

http://www.pottery-store.com?more-info

http://www.pottery-store.com/cgi-bin/affiliate-referral.cgi?affiliate12341

The first one (where "more-info" isrepparttar 102612 affiliate's username) is much more likely to lure a click-through.

A big advantage of short referral URLs is they are easier to put into newsletters, which are a highly effective way to advertise online.

============================= Help your affiliates help you =============================

Ninety percent of affiliates won't make a lot of money for you. They need encouragement, motivation, and help.

Consider giving performance bonuses torepparttar 102613 top earners. Run a monthly newsletter and praise your top affiliates in it.

Tell your other affiliates howrepparttar 102614 top earners did it, and aboutrepparttar 102615 performance bonus you gave them. Give your affiliates ideas on how to promote your products best.

Your top earners will appreciaterepparttar 102616 ego massage, and your other affiliates will find out what's possible if they put their mind to it.

For more details see:

How to make your affiliates enthusiastically loyal http://www.associateprograms.com/search/affiliate-loyalty.shtml

Remember, when you help your affiliates get sales, you help yourself get sales.

============== The end result ==============

Starting a lifetime affiliate program is not easy, butrepparttar 102617 rewards are worth it.

To make your affiliate program successful, you need to make it attractive to affiliates, andrepparttar 102618 best way to do that is offer good rewards.

If you pay lifetime commissions you offer affiliatesrepparttar 102619 opportunity to earn more money than they normally would. They will work harder forrepparttar 102620 better commissions and inrepparttar 102621 end, it will pay off with a better, more effective affiliate program, that is more profitable for you.

- Christopher Pearce http://www.LifetimeCommissions.com -

===================== Links in this article: =====================

Problems with Internet Explorer 6 and cookies: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnpriv/html/ie6privacyfeature.asp

Wilson Web: http://wilsonweb.com

My Affiliate Program tracking software: http://www.myaffiliateprogram.com

GroundBreak (Ultimate Affiliate) tracking software: http://www.groundbreak.com

eLance.com, somewhere to start looking for programmers: http://www.elance.com/

How to make your affiliates enthusiastically loyal http://www.associateprograms.com/search/affiliate-loyalty.shtml



Christopher Pearce runs LifetimeCommissions.com, which reviews lifetime and residual affiliate programs. Keep up-to-date with the latest lifetime programs. Subscribe to his monthly newsletter - Send a blank e-mail to: mailto:lifetimecommissions-subscribe@topica.com


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