I am going to assume that you are a product vendor and that you have already acquired affiliates. This post is more to inspire you and give you ways of how to keep your affiliates happy and retain them for longevity.

One thing you need to know is the ins and outs of the payment processor your using. The difference between Clickbank and Paydotcom is that as a network Clickbank handles all the processing such as refunds, payments to affiliates, etc. PayDotCom on the other hand utilizes Paypal as their processor so they have things in place that allow you as a vendor to handle refunds and payments to your affiliates thru your Paypal account. Being familiar with what network you put your product on (if any) is a vital component in knowing how the money is flowing thru.

At some point your going to have to realize that you will probably run into competing vendors of your product. Countless times I have promoted products in the past on Adwords that I would build a list with and send them promotions. Countless times, I made very good money doing this and countless times, I wanted to squeeze this vendor out of my money flow. I wanted to take the product and make a clone and that way instead of 50%-75% I was keeping the full 100% take. While this is a good model to go by, I never really had time and instead focused harder on promoting the products available to me from the networks.

With that said, you need to realize that there are thousands of affiliates that think this way. If they have success promoting a product then this is one of the most slap happy easiest ways to become a vendor. You already know that traffic converts and buys so all you really need to do is rewrite/repackage the product being given and concentrate on better conversions. When you have affiliates of your own promoting your product and being successful, what’s to stop them from promoting you to now, competing against you? Trust me, this kind of shit happens ALOT.

So keeping your affiliates happy relies on going above and beyond the realm. One thing is to take a look at the commissions being offered by other vendors in your market, and trying to offer more. The more you can offer to entice affiliates to keep promoting you, the less likely they are going to stop making money (promoting your product) and take the time it takes to build a product of their own, and start the whole process themselves. It’s almost sneak marketing but it is not really. Think of it as keeping your affiliates more than happy, while you quietly chuckle that by going above and beyond, your keeping the most dangerous of competition away:)

Affiliate pages are vital. The more tools you can offer your affiliates for promotion the more traffic your going to get. You can set up little email sequences, HTML email ads, graphics, whatever you want really. I won’t preach to you what good affiliate pages are, just go to a program you promote and see what kind of tools they offer for promotion. Set yourself up a blueprint from someone else’s already successful business. You don’t have to invent this shit, all you need to do is copy one’s already successful outline, and then do it better than them.

Contests are a great incentive to affiliates. I know Greg and I payout incentives every month and we have had a few large contests as well. Contests usually give inspiration and motivation to promote harder. Everyone would love that extra $5,000 at the end of the month just for doing a little bit more promotion than usual.

Emailing your affiliates is another important component to keep them happy. Good lord, if you didn’t email them, how they know you were alive? A simple email out of the blue is not going to far. I don’t know with Clickbank but I know in Paydotcom, Greg and I can email all 57,000+ affiliates with a push of a button. That’s some awesome power to have. The more you stay in tune with your affiliates and provide more training materials, the more likely your going to make more money. It’s just that simple. Which reminds me, I have a ton of affiliate updating to do myself. Peace.

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