How to Get Started - Network Affiliates 

All network affiliate companies are different, and will have different prices, promotions and terms and conditions; the following is a general guide that covers the important areas.

Research – As you are usually only able to sign up to one affiliate network at a time (it is often a condition of the contract), you need to research them before you start to contact them. Find out what they offer, what companies use them, whether any companies in your industry (or with a similar business model to you) use them, how long they have been going, whether people on the internet have serious complaints about them, etc.

Contact Companies – Once you have narrowed the number of network affiliate companies to those you feel are right for you, you should start contacting them to find out more information and details. As smaller companies (with smaller budgets) are less likely to be accepted onto major networks, you should make sure you have several companies in mind in case your first choice does not accept you.

Ask about minimum requirements and fees now, to save you going through further effort only to find you are not eligible or the costs are too high.

Sign Up – If the terms and conditions are satisfactory, and you believe your affiliate scheme is suitable to be accepted; then you should sign up to the network scheme that you have chosen. This will usually involve being emailed a contract, which you sign and email/post/fax back once you have completed it.

Make sure you read through the entire contract to confirm all of the terms are the same as you expected, and there is no small print that changes things.

Work out Prices - You need to come up with the commission pricing for your adverts; this needs to reward publishers enough to attract them to your scheme, but also needs to ensure you aren’t losing all your profit margin or paying more than you need to! Many network affiliates will help you to work out your pricing, and offer guidance to help you create an attractive offer for publishers.

E.g.: If you make £20 profit on a £100 product, you might want to offer £5 commission.
If you make £50 profit on a £100 product, you might consider £8-10 commission.

You also need to account for how many sales you will expect. If your product tends to sell to a small number of people you need to offer more per sale than if it sells to a wide range of people. If you have a low commission with low sales then publishers will not stick with your affiliate scheme for very long.

Some affiliate networks may expect you to sort your commission prices out before you sign up.

Create Your Ads – You need to create the advert images that you will provide to the network to give to the publishers. It is advisable to create the initial versions of your affiliate ads early, so that you can get feedback from the network before your scheme starts.

Find out more about creating an online ad here. If you are not confident in creating your own ad images you will need to pay someone else to create them, or in some cases the affiliate network can produce them for a fee.

The ads will need to be in a variety of sizes to suit the ad positions of the various publishers who may consider your scheme. The network you sign up to will probably give you a list of essential sizes, though it is best to remember that the fewer sizes of advert you create, the fewer sites will be able to use them.

You may also wish to make a number of different advert images (maybe targeted at different areas of your market) to help publishers pick an advert that is likely to get better results for them (and therefore you!).

Some affiliate networks may expect you to create your ads before you sign up.

Promote Your Scheme – Once your scheme is ready to go, you need to attract publishers to sign up for it. Most affiliate networks will promote your scheme, but you may need to pay for this; and each network will do things differently. You may still need to contact potential publishers to try and attract them to your affiliate scheme through the network.

Sign People Up – The signing up process will mostly be handled by the affiliate network, though you may be asked to approve each publisher that applies; to ensure they are relevant and appear trustworthy (Most businesses don’t want their adverts on sites that look dodgy!).

Payment – If your affiliate network pays the publishers the commission for your affiliate adverts; you will need to pay them, usually before the publisher is paid. This means that if you pay late, your publisher may also get paid late, which will discourage them from your scheme. Some affiliate networks may ask for pre-payment for a certain amount of commission when you start, to ensure that you are not going to avoid payment after sales have already been made on your behalf.

Article Index
1. How Can You Take Advantage of Affiliate Marketing?
2. Affiliate Marketing - Advantages and Disadvantages
3. How to Get Started - Making Money With Affiliate Marketing
4. Promoting Your Business With Affiliate Marketing
5. Promoting With Affiliate Marketing - Advantages and Disadvantages
6. How to Get Started - Promoting With Affiliate Marketing