50-ways-to-make-your-first-sale

Chapter 45
Do Affiliate Marketing
DETERMINE HOW MUCH OF A “CUT” YOU CAN AFFORD
You’ll have to do some math to figure out how much of a percentage you can
afford to give up to do affiliate marketing. Can you part with 5% of the total
revenue that comes from a sale? How about 10%? The higher the percentage,
then generally the more affiliate traffic you will receive.
If you’re really interested in setting up an affiliate program, you may want to
raise your prices to allow margin to pay affiliate marketers.
Joining an Affiliate Marketing Network
The easiest thing to do is to sign up for an affiliate marketing network like
Commission Junction. They provide a marketplace where your affiliate
program will be advertised to other affiliate marketers. They also provide
the tracking software for your affiliates so you don’t have to build your own
tracking system. In some ways this is better because it takes care of the trust
issues. Affiliates are always suspicious of whether or not they’re getting
credited for the sales they generate. By having an intermediary take care of
transaction tracking and payments, the fear of being cheated is alleviated.
Affiliate networks will also take a cut of your sales or charge fees to use their
network. You’ll have to weigh this additional cost to see if you can afford it.
Be sure to check out these webpages of other affiliate networks that are out
there:
• Commission Junction
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