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While BeFree, Linkshare, and Commission Junction facilitate the management of an affiliate program,
just signing up with one of these companies will not guarantee success. There is still much work
to be done to optimize affiliate program results.
Affiliate program optimization involves three key components:
1. Recruiting Targeted Affiliates. While the affiliate network you join
will give your program exposure to thousands of affiliates, the majority of these
affiliates (aproximately 80% of those who join through the network) will not produce
any results. It is therefore critical to have a plan to attract the real producers;
websites which can either drive tons of traffic or websites which have the ability to
drive extremely relevant traffic.
2. Communicate with current affiliates (especially the top producers).
Your top affiliates are smarter than you! There are many ways to use this fact
to your advantage. In most cases, the top 20% of your affiliates will produce over 80%
of your results. It is critical to understand who is driving results, why they are
able to drive superior results, and what they need to produce even better results.
Once you fully understand the top producers and optimize their results, use what
you learned to help the 2nd and 3rd tier affiliates. These are most likely small sites
which would like to increase their results, but don't understand how to "win at the affiliate
game." By communicating with them effectively (newsletters, calls, e-mails, chats, etc.),
you can improve your results tremendously.
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