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Affiliate Communication


Communication is Key!

When building an affiliate network communicating with affiliates is important for merchants to maintain a good relationship. An affiliate's web site targets visitors, who may not necessarily view a merchant's web site, and therefore expands a merchants market. An affiliate may not be able to actively keep up with the merchants product, it is important for a merchant to keep affiliate's informed about new product information, sales, new releases, links, graphics, promotions and special offers.

Keep in mind, not all affiliates are going to produce a high volume of traffic, and importantly, visitors who want to purchase a merchant's products or services. The occasional gem makes the time taken well worth your effort. Talk with successful affiliates, find out what they are doing to effectively promote your software, and use that information to assist those affiliates who are not as successful.

Assist affiliates in understanding your product; no one knows your products like you do. For affiliates to drive traffic that will convert to sales, they need to understand the benefits of the product they are marketing. Once an affiliate knows the product, they will be better able to act as an extended sales force. In order for the affiliate to make the effort, you simply must support them!

Make Communication Easy

Many 3rd party affiliate-tracking programs notify both the affiliate and merchant of a sale. This can often be automated and will create positive communication between merchants and affiliates. Making an affiliate's role easier will help them increase earnings and further promote a merchants site.

Provide affiliates with great looking graphics and sample text. Graphics that work best are those that highlight your web site, yet fit the look of an affiliate's web site.

Newsletters are another great way to get information to affiliates. Include tips and specific for affiliates, along with general marketing advice that helps with site promotion. If you are looking for software to manage newsletters, I highly recommend Group Mail - http://tinyurl.com/23ljy

Affiliate Taboos

An affiliate generates a sale for a product and the merchant promptly decreases the commission. This sends a very negative message to the affiliate, in many cases they've taken a lot of time to place links, promote products and because they've driven effective traffic their commission is decreased. If its necessary to decrease a commission for whatever reason, be sure to include a personal note detailing the reason and letting the affiliate know that you still support their efforts.

A Cheat?

An affiliate sale occurs, you go to their website and don't find any links you decide they must be cheating you! This conclusion is simply a based on poor communication and reporting. Many, many affiliates have multiple sites, very few affiliate tracking programs allow affiliates to list multiple sites, and in many cases the number of sites listed do not accurately reflect the number of sites owned and managed by the affiliate. Additionally many affiliates manage opt-in newsletters that may result in sales, but links are not visible on a website. An example of a popular ezine often promoting affiliates is Lockergnome!

Links, Links, Links

Keep your links valid! If you update a section of the site or remove an offer provide a redirect or retain the link saying that such and such offer has expired and a new one has replaced it. It seems a waste to discard targeted traffic because a special has expired. Be sure to communicate with your affiliates, and if a link will only be good for a specified length of time tell them up front. When an offer expires notify affiliates a week prior to the expiration with a reminder. This will give them ample time to make any needed updates.

Added Incentives!

Affiliates love added bonuses for reaching goals or specified levels of sales. Many of the 3rd party affiliate vendors run contests and provide large incentives for their top performing ones. Reward and praise successful affiliates.

Affiliates tend to be experts in other areas, which relate to a merchants business; therefore, by communicating useful information, and helping affiliates increase their earnings, they will give added exposure and increase your sales. Communicating with affiliates will ultimately benefit visitors of both sites. A little effort in the beginning can mean big rewards in the long run.

About The Author

Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com and http://www.small-business-software.net


MORE RESOURCES:

Ottawa Citizen

The Walt Disney Company Reports Earnings for Fiscal Year 2008
MarketWatch - Nov 6, 2008
The increase in affiliate revenue was due to contractual rate increases and subscriber growth. Increased advertising revenues reflected improved rates and ...
Walt Disney F4Q08 (Qtr End 9/27/08) Earnings Call Transcript Seeking Alpha
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Sports Business Journal (subscription)

Execs agree deal’sa milestone
Sports Business Journal (subscription), NC - Nov 24, 2008
ESPN, which gets about $4 per subscriber per month from cable and satellite operators, pulls in more from affiliate revenue than other national cable ...


Exclaim!

Atlantic Becomes First Major To Sell More Digital Units Than CDs
Exclaim!, Canada - Nov 26, 2008
... that sales from digital products, such as iTunes downloads and ringtones, account for 51 percent of the Warner affiliate's revenue in the last quarter. ...


Cablevision Systems Corporation Q3 2008 Earnings Call Transcript
Seeking Alpha, NY - Nov 6, 2008
The third quarter results were principally driven by higher revenue at the networks of $10 million which was principally increased affiliate revenue and ...
Cablevision Systems Corporation Reports Third Quarter 2008 Results StreetInsider.com (subscription)
all 3 news articles


Cleco Corp. Posts 2008 Third-Quarter Net Income of $37.1 Million
CNNMoney.com - Nov 5, 2008
30, 2008 2007 ----------- ----------- Operating revenue Electric operations $ 333936 $ 300862 Other operations 7004 9238 Affiliate revenue 2735 1591 ...


Sports Business Journal (subscription)

Is cable the new home of champions?
Sports Business Journal (subscription), NC - Nov 17, 2008
The fourth quarter ad market has been soft across all sports, putting greater importance on the affiliate revenue that cable networks collect. ...


Ottawa Citizen

Turner Nets Defy Soft Market
Adweek, NY - Nov 6, 2008
Along with the advertising gains, network revenue was goosed by 10 percent year-to-year growth in subscription/affiliate revenue. The Turner nets now appear ...
Time Warner Q3 2008 earnings transcript BloggingStocks
all 507 news articles


Cablevision Systems Corporation Reports Third Quarter 2008 Results
MarketWatch - Nov 6, 2008
... all compared to September 2007 -- A 9.3% increase in affiliate revenue compared to the prior year period -- A 19.3% increase in operating costs compared ...


News Corp Q1 net income drops 30%
Indiantelevision.com, India - Nov 7, 2008
Also, cable network programming revenue rose 19 per cent to $1.3 billion, on advertising and affiliate revenue gains at Fox News Channel, FX and the Big Ten ...


TechCrunch

Cookstr Helps You Find Recipes From People Who Know Their Onions
TechCrunch, CA - Nov 18, 2008
... NY Times article on the startup points out, they’ll also be collecting affiliate revenue when books are sold on e-commerce sites via their website. ...

Affiliate-Revenue - Google News

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