1. Why Start Your Own Affiliate Program?

Multiple web sites and distributors selling your product can result in increased sales and profits. Unlike conventional advertising, affiliate programs pay only for performance. Commissions are not paid out unless sales are made.

Also, with many more web sites linking to yours, your link popularity is sure to increase in search engines, resulting in additional traffic and income.

2. Combine a Merchant Account with Your Affiliate Program

If your product is downloadable (such as electronic books or software), you might consider ClickBank.com. For a $49.95 initial fee, you can process credit cards and on-line cheques for $1.00 per transaction plus 7.5% of sales. As an added bonus, you have your own built-in affiliate program.

ClickBank gives you a listing on their web site and visitors can buy your products and join your affiliate program. You choose commission rate you are willing to pay. All commission payments are handled by ClickBank. One downside is that you can't run a two-tiered program.

To learn more about ClickBank affiliate programs, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/cbap.html

3. Use an Affiliate Program Script

If you are comfortable with running CGI scripts, you may wish to install your own affiliate program on your server and administer affiliate program yourself.

Be forewarned, though, that this is a lot of work. You will be responsible for all testing, security, commission payments, promotion and so on. Another downside: Will your potential affiliates trust you since their commissions are not tracked and paid by an independent third party?

You will find an example of an affiliate script program at http://www.simpleaffiliate.com/s.cgi?index-12422

4. Use a Hosted Solution

Getting so many emails as I do about ezine publishing, I thought maybe an article covering most asked questions would be useful to some of you who are thinking about or just starting your own ezine.

* What is an Ezine?

An ezine is simply an electronic newsletter or magazine mailed periodically to a list of opt-in subscribers. Opt-in means that these subscribers have signed-up for or requested to receive your ezine.

A good ezine will contain lots of useful information and resources for subscribers.

* Who Do I Send My Ezine To?

You obtain a list of subscribers by advertising and promoting your ezine in several ways.

Announcement lists - Follow guidelines for posting and get some fr~e exposure! http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ListPOP http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Announce_Your_Group

Writing Articles - Definitely something you want to get into. Very powerful method of fr~e promotion!

Ad swaps - Running other publishers' ads in exchange for them running yours is a great way to get a lot of fr~e ezine advertising, plus you get to make new friends as well! ;-) http://www28.brinkster.com/bluesite/swap.htm http://ezine-swap.com/

Sigtag - Always add a sigtag to your email with your subscribe link and an attention grabbing headline about your ezine. Very effective!

Discussion Lists - Similar to announcement lists, but get involved in discussions as often as possible. mailto:digital-women-subscribe@yahoogroups.com mailto:hbj_chat-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Message Boards - Similar to discussion groups. Establish yourself as an expert who is there to help. http://www.mcpromotions.com/webbbs/webbbs_config.pl?#156