There are three different ways you can establish an affiliate program. One, you can go to an affiliate network and hire someone who manages programs and who will sign you up as an advertiser. Secondly, you can find some an Application Service Providers (ASPs) who will set up an affiliate program on their servers and change you to host the system. Finally, you can create your own affiliate networking program by using software that plugs into your own existing website and manage the entire thing yourself. We will go over each option below.
These offer the least amount of control, but the quickest way to link up to people willing to try your affiliate program to make money. It does cost you money to sign up and also on a rotating basis to keep the program alive. You do not get to work with your affiliates directly. So, in essence you are locked into a particular network, you pay a lot of money upfront and then you have to keep paying to keep the programs going. If you are doing this for the long run, this is the most expensive method and you are tied into the program if you want to keep particular affiliates. If you decide to try a different affiliate network, you have to start over from square one in attracting new affiliates. They do not transfer over to a different network.
Another thing to consider for affiliate networks is that they might not end up giving you backlink credit. Places like Commission Junction, cj.com, have excellent affiliate programs, but some people say they have trouble getting backlink credit from the affiliate links. This is due to the way the servers track the links and in some cases, they aren’t set up to offer backlinks. However, if an affiliate really likes your products, they might do a review and then you get a backlink that way. Other network affiliates, like LinkConnector.com, is said to have programming to allow the backlink to give affiliate PR credit. If, however, any major search engine begins to penalize advertising companies for allowing this practice, you can be sure the affiliate networks will drop this feature rather than lose their affiliate referral programs. They are more interested in the programs than backlinks.
Here, the hosting company of the affiliate program is only providing the hosting and the application hosted. They do not provide the network and it is up to you to sign up your affiliates. The costs are much less than affiliate networks, but there is no instant affiliate waiting to sign up either. If you already have a wide audience and have marketed backlinks in other forums, you can use this as a new promotional feature for your website. As long as your products are sound and you are intent on providing value to your affiliates who want to make money, the easier time you will have signing people up.
The beauty here is that you get to keep any affiliate you sign up if you decide to change platforms later to another service provider or a software program. You signed them up, so they are your affiliate. That’s much better than relying on a network where the rights to the affiliates that sign up to your program are owned by the portal. This can also help you to determine if the backlinks produced by the program are going in areas that produce a rise in PageRank from valuable sponsors or not. Since you will be the person approving the affiliate, you know whether you are attracting quality retailers or not. And, you do not have to approve all affiliates who apply, but that’s a personal choice.
An example of an application service provider is AssocTrack, http://www.marketingtips.com/assoctrac/index.html . Since it is a third party hosted site, it may not provide backlink credit back to your own site. That is something that can be an issue when setting up third party service providers.
There is a variety of software out there to help you create your own affiliate program hosted on your domain. If you don’t know how to set one up, you will probably need to hire a programmer at the previously listed freelance sites. There are a number of complications with software that require an expert to sort through. Just because software comes in a box, doesn’t mean you can easily update a Web server with it. You will want to get someone who understands what platform your web server host is on, what rights you have to modify directories and pages, and how to successfully install a software product for the Web.
Despite this, software can be relatively inexpensive to purchase. There are many freelancers willing to install the products for a reasonable cost too. Once you buy a software package you can use it on as many sites you like without additional costs (unless there are licensing restrictions), unlike the other two options. You will have both the affiliate program and your website hosted on the same domain name, safeguarding against multiple hosting problems from two different servers. You have total control of the software package and you can have it customized to fit your needs exactly. The only thing that really stands in your way of doing this option is being able to implement the program on your server in a secure fashion. This does require some expertise.
There is one additional warning you should take with you when you make your decision to buy software: understand the level and quality of support offered on the package. If a software creator won’t support the product, the first time an affiliate discovers a glitch, you are on your own. This can produce more ill will than good will amongst people whom you are depending on to provide valuable backlinks. So, check to see how well a product is supported before you buy it.
Two examples of software that allows you to get backlink PR passed back to your own pages are: Ultralinks and MyAP.
Ultralinks is created by Fusion Quest. It is available here: http://www.ultra-affiliate-software.com/?fusion . MyAP is created by Kowbunga and can be located here: http://www.myaffiliateprogram.com/. MyAP also gives you the ability to tie into Kowbunga’s affiliate network while hosting the affiliate program on your own website. They do this as a value-added service with no extra charge. The thing to look for is the ability to direct link from your affiliate back to your site. If they go through a third party server, you most likely won’t get the backlink credit. If you’re not sure, you should have someone knowledgeable check your affiliate links to see if they are actually helping your PR or not and find out other sites who teaches HOW TO ESTABLISH AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM.
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