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Affiliate marketing can be a very attractive part of your online business. When all is said and done, you don’t have to think about hiring extra staff, increasing your investments in advertising or becoming involved with complex marketing systems. If you can find some highly motivated outside individuals or organisations which are willing to promote and sell your products and services, all you need to do is to set aside a portion of the profits to pay them for their sales.

It’s very important to spend advertising money correctly, especially in times of economic recession. In most situations, it’s tough to analyse the actual effects of a marketing investment and it’s difficult to justify too, therefore when it comes to marketing, you should only invest after careful consideration.

By acquiring an array of affiliates, you can leverage a great deal of power. Performance-based marketing of this type is highly attractive, as you only pay when a sale is made. The affiliate takes on all of the responsibility for paying for advertising and marketing to get the customers, and because of this the “cost per action” method is becoming increasingly advantageous in this day and age.

Any organisations that have some type of intangible product or an intangible service to offer should seek out an affiliate network. These networks have already attracted a large number of highly motivated affiliates who are actively looking for product or service providers to work with. The affiliate network organisation will – in all likelihood, need some persuading that your company is a good fit for them, and this could easily lead to some negotiation, but it’s definitely worth your while to pursue this set-up process as you’ll effectively have a small army of external sales consultants who are more than ready to be paid based on their actual performance.

Inside this market there are an incredible number of top notch affiliate networks. Some only handle certain types of business, and you need to do some research to make sure that yours is a good fit. It’s always in the network’s best interest to ensure that everyone profits, as their income is based entirely on a cut of the actual commissions which are paid.

Remember that the affiliate assumes the risk of marketing to the consumer through their chosen channels, and you should make sure that you adequately incentivise them. Have realistic commissions in mind, be aware of who is signing up for your program and ensure that they always follow the rules and parameters you have established at the beginning. Just be aware that the affiliates represent your organisation in many respects, so be sure that they do not act or promote in a counter-productive fashion.

Try and attract affiliates with a good reach, through comprehensive e-mail lists, well-recognised blogs or highly trafficked websites. Create a good relationship with these key sellers and your business could grow in leaps and bounds.

If you find some affiliates to be particularly productive, set aside something additional to use to further incentivise them. Your goal must always be to fertilise any relationships that you start to build with key affiliates, to build an even more fruitful arrangement.

During your website development, don’t forget to include graphics advertising your affiliate program and links to the sign-up page hosted by your affiliate network. Remember that you have to keep an eye on your affiliate program once it’s up and running, and if you want to be spending your time relaxing on a tropical island somewhere, this would be an ideal task for your virtual assistant.

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, an accomplished Executive Virtual Assistant Service which helps companies of all sizes reach their commercial targets. Want to get more information about online business building success strategies that really work? Contact VMF today!

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