1. View your affiliate program as a partnership between you and your affiliates, and make it your priority to develop good relationships between you and your affiliate sales force.

2. Answer any questions your visitors or affiliates have about your affiliate program in a fast and friendly manner.

Remember that nothing will turn your affiliates or visitors off of your affiliate program faster than an unanswered email. Your affiliates must know that you take them and the effort they make to promote your business seriously.

3. Track all of your affiliates' sales accurately and fairly.

Your affiliates should be able to earn commissions on their referrals even if their referral comes back months, or even a year later and makes a purchase.

4. Save time and money by making your affiliate program, like your business, as automated as possible.

Your affiliate program software should allow you to automatically notify your affiliates by email whenever they've made a sale, referred a new affiliate if your affiliate program is two-tier, as well as show your affiliates how many hits, sales, and commissions they've generated in real time.

5. Attract more affiliates by paying a high commission, offering a two-tier commission structure, paying commissions on repeat customers, or by giving your affiliates the opportunity to earn residual commissions if you provide a service that is paid for on a subscription basis.

6. Give your affiliates plenty of resources that they can use to promote your products.

This could include your own marketing courses that your affiliates can give away to their visitors or subscribers, ad copy that you've found has produced sales for you, ebooks that they can rebrand with their affiliate URL, or sample recommendations of your

7. Publish a newsletter for your affiliates that gives them tips on how to best promote your products, tells them of any sales or promotions you have running, and that reminds them of the resources you've provided for them to promote your products.

8. Increase your top affiliates productivity by paying them a higher commission for their referrals based on their performance, and by giving them special recognition on your site or in your affiliate newsletter.

Giving your affiliates special recognition in your newsletter can also serve to teach your newer affiliates how to successfully promote your products, as well as show them by example that the tools you've given them do work effectively.

9. If you write articles, let your affiliates publish them in their ezines or on their websites with their affiliate URL in your resource box.

This can be an excellent way for your affiliates to earn commissions promoting your products through your resource box while also further building up credibility for you and your business.

10. To increase the number of affiliates that consistently use your articles to promote your products, create a mailing list (in addition to your affiliate newsletter) that your affiliates can subscribe to that tells them when you've written new articles that they can use to promote your services.

Article © 2003 by writer, Ken Hill. Integrate your entire e-commerce web site using an amazing all-in-one solution. Includes affiliate program software, mailing list manager, unlimited autoresponders, newbie friendly shopping cart and much more! Discover total e-business automation now at: http://www.scstats.com/r.cfm?i=5029

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