How Not To Set Up An Affiliate Program

I get really annoyed when I find a great piece of software, book or product which has an affiliate program however the company makes it nearly impossible to find it.

In having just wasted a good hour or more searching for affiliate sign up information for a piece of software, here are some tips on what you should do to make sure that potential affiliates can find your affiliate information easily.

1. Always have a separate affiliate information page. Even if this page is not linked to your index page people who are interested in becoming your affiliate can find the details by conducting a simple search on one of the major search engines.

2. If your affiliate program runs through Clickbank still have a separate page showing affiliates how to set up their Clickbank affiliate (hop) link. Why? Clickbanks search feature is hopeless and it’s saves the affiliate having to search through dozens of pages of products.

3. If you have a separate/secure area where customers download your products, place a link to your affiliate information there as you never know who may be interested in selling that product or other products you may offer.

4. Always offer affiliates statistics on their clicks and sales even when using a service like Clickbank. I tend to promote products more when I have some idea on how my initial promotion efforts have gone and I can track them.

5. The affiliates stats or secure area should always have contact information clearly marked or information on how to contact support or helpdesk.

By not having this information you are clearly doing yourself out of sales and profits.

Depending on the product, sometimes I will persevere with looking for the affiliate information while other times I will find a competitors product that is just as good and go with theirs instead.

Therefore the moral of the story is… “If you set up an affiliate program make it visible or lose money!”