The whole point behind setting up an Affiliate Program is to make it really easy for the affiliate to join and to bring you qualified visitors. For the affiliate, the beauty is that there are no orders to fill, no credit cards to charge, no inventory to stock, no returns or shipping or handling problems, no customer service, no questions, no in-person or over the phone selling of the product.
It is all "clean and easy" for them... which is one of the main benefits of joining an Affiliate Program.
They don't have to worry about maintaining a website (although many affiliates DO have a website, some just sell to their newsletter lists, or use other sales techniques not requiring a website). It basically makes it really easy for them to make money. They link to you, you track everything and you give them a referral fee for every sale they generate. This is the heart of Affiliate Programs, and the whole beauty of them!
What you want as an affiliate program owner, is software that not only takes a lot of work out of your hands, but makes it really easy for your affiliates to join and get all of the information they need to become successful.
Most small businesses should not be concentrating on how the software works and on how to get it working. Your time is better spent on developing products and on marketing them not on dealing with the technology behind your software, because the technology can be very sophisticated.
To repeat myself (because it is so important), you, as an Affiliate Program owner, want to have software which is easy to use and provides all of the information for associates to become successful (which means that you become successful). You want to spend time on marketing and improving your product, building a better website, converting more visitors into sales and supporting your associates to make sure they are doing well, giving them more ideas and making sure you have great customer service. You don't want to be worrying about all the hardware and software technology, which goes on behind the Affiliate Program.
BUT... you should know what Affiliate Program software is capable of... what features to look for and ask about... what works and what doesn't work! You need to know enough about Affiliate Program software to choose wisely.
There's lots of software out there right now for Affiliate Programs. To be very straight forward (and I'm not going to point fingers at anyone in particular), there's a lot of garbage out there. Some of them have different ideas on how to track associates (i.e. CGI scripts, hidden form fields, through cookies, through Java scripts, through database management, through ASP management). It goes on and on and on. You have to really watch this, because you must get quality software. You don't want to set up your whole Affiliate Program and then find out 3 months later that the software is lacking and your affiliate are complaining that the software isn't reliable… not to mention the multitude of other problems, which may arise with poor software.
Here is one of the affiliate program software you may consider, it's called AssocTrac.
It is developed from the point of view of a marketer, not from a programmers point of view... there is a big difference!
Producers have learned a lot over the years they have invested in this. The problems they have run into, dealing with thousands of affiliates have introduced them personally to all the ups and downs, ins and outs of running an Affiliate Program! They have developed software, which meets all of your affiliate program needs, whatever you can imagine, from a marketer's standpoint.
With new affiliate program you don't need to spend your whole day tracking customers and who referred them, it's all done for you. No more paperwork, no manual calculations or order tracking. No updating associate's information, no finding passwords for associates, and no writing checks. Your Associates sign up on a simple web form, and all their information is automatically entered into your database (which they will set up for you). Your associates can start tracking their stats in real-time - instantly.
It doesn't take you any extra time to track 10 or 10,000 associates - it makes no difference to Affiliate programs. There literally is no limit to how large your Associate Program can grow, and with it, your business.
Affiliate programs allows you complete freedom through total automation. A one-man operation can be as effective as a much larger corporation - this can level the playing field between you and bigger competitors. Let your associates deal with advertising your business and generating sales, and you can deal with the more important things - like expanding your business and enjoying the money your Associate Program will make for you!
To summarize, here are some of the major features:
Real time tracking of stats...
Easy sign up of new associates...
Tracks through Cookies... AND CGI Scripts...
Easy Integration into your existing E-commerce systems...
SQL relational database for quick accessing...
Easily customizable...
Unlimited Product Tracking...
Proven and reliable system...
Removes the need for you to advertise, others do it for you...
Automatic Updates...
Automation of administration and creates credibility...
