Expand Your Sales Force – Part 2 of 2

Try Affiliate Marketing

In the last post, we discussed Affiliate Marketing as an inexpensive way to increase your sales force and boost your revenues. Here, we’ll take a closer look at HOW those revenues are earned.

Some Merchants run their own (i.e., in-house) affiliate programs using popular software while others use third-party services provided by intermediaries to track traffic or sales that are referred from affiliates (see outsourced program management). Merchants can choose from two different types of affiliate management solutions: standalone software or hosted services, typically called affiliate networks.

Affiliate Marketing Compensation Methods

As Affiliate Marketing has evolved, so have compensation models. The methods vary:

• 80% – revenue sharing or cost per sale (CPS)
• 19% – cost per action (CPA), and
• the remaining 1% use methods such as cost per click (CPC) or cost per mille (CPM).

As a retailer, or Merchant, this is quite attractive, because Affiliates are typically paid a commission for each sale. And when the Merchant uses an Affiliate Network, all the activity is tracked, payments are made, and reports are automated.

Top Affiliate Network Companies

CompareTheBrands.com offers an in-depth look at many of the Affiliate Networks and their typical commission structures, along with great insights from real experience: “We make most of our revenue from affiliate programs, and have plenty of experience with them. Here are the best networks out there. See which one topped all others in this affiliate network review and comparison.”

Th­e f­o­­l­l­o­­wing l­is­t o­­f­ th­e b­es­t Af­f­il­iate Netwo­­rks­ is­ co­­mp­il­ed b­y an actual­ f­ul­l­-time af­f­il­iate marketer wh­o­­ h­as­ wo­­rked th­es­e p­ro­­grams­ f­o­­r o­­ver f­ive years­, as reported by onlineprofitable.com:

• Com­­m­­ission Junct­ion (www.cj.com­­)
• ClickB­an­k (w­w­w­.clickb­an­k.co­m)
• Li­nk­S­ha­re­ (w­w­w­.li­nk­s­ha­re­.com­­)
• Af­f­iliate W­in­do­w­ (w­w­w­.af­f­iliatew­in­do­w­.c­o­m)
• Amazon­­ (www.amazon­­.com)
• Share­asale­ (www.share­asale­.co­­m)
• Google­ (www.google­.c­om/adse­n­­se­)
• L­inkC­onnec­t­or­ (www.l­inkc­onnec­t­or­.c­om­­)
• C­PA Em­pi­r­e (www.c­paem­pi­r­e.c­o­m­)

Do you have tips for other small businesses just starting out with Affiliate Programs?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com