Asking internet marketers to join your affiliate program

Asking other Internet marketers catering to your target market to join your affiliate program and promote your products is a solid idea, but is not always easy to implement.  Like many potential customers, they’ll likely ask, “What’s in it for me?”  They’re certainly not going to be willing to go out of their way to promote your product for you to their lists without there being some substantial benefits in it for them.

Offering a high commission rate is one way to begin an appropriate proposal.  It almost certainly has to be over 50% though, as virtually every affiliate program offers at least 50%.  To further accentuate how much you value the Internet marketer’s involvement in your affiliate program, you should be willing to give him/her a higher percentage than your regular affiliates.  If you offer your regular affiliates 60%, you might consider giving the Internet marketer 75% or even 80% from each sale made.

You should also be willing to provide special bonuses that only his/her customers can receive for ordering through his/her link – this will help to encourage the marketer’s subscribers to purchase your product, thereby giving him/her more profit, which will make the marketer all that more eager to promote your product to his/her list.

However, the perks you give to this Internet marketer may not end when your product’s popularity starts declining.  Being that the marketer likely develops new products from time to time, he/she may require or request that you return the favor and promote his/her product to your subscribers.  Of course, you should confirm that this product is of high quality before committing to present it to your subscribers, but you should certainly be willing to entertain that possibility – it’s much like ezine advertising where one publisher will present another marketer’s ads in his/her newsletter to his/her subscribers in return for the other marketer presenting the first marketer’s offer in his/her newsletter to his/her subscribers.  It’s definitely a give-and-take situation, but can be well-worth it to add a potential super affiliate to your affiliate sales force and increase your profits.

For more information on recruiting top-performing affiliates into your affiliate program, check out “Managing Your Affiliates.”