Starting up

[mungo]

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Hi all,
dont now if this is the right place to ask but how do you go about starting your own program and how do you build trust within the affiliates?

[pricethat]

1:Lots of hard work
2:Honesty
3:Transparency
4:Be generally a nice chap or llaaaadddyyy
5:Join a network who are used to dealing with people that are a bit new to it all. ( I am a fan of webgains for newbie merchants but others have personal favourites)
6o not be afraid to ask questions
7on't do sneaky or evil
8:Pay on time, or before time
9on't mess your customers around
10:Join a forum and talk with people (ahh you did that one)
11:Come to various meetings we have and "mingle" or just get drunk
12rink lots of coffee
13:Smile

Not a lot to do then is it?

That was matt's personal guide to affiliate marketing but to be honest the most important part of all that is to speak to people, we rely on tracking to manage our relationship with you, thats why we like networks because we can keep you in our little majic box along with all the other merchants. But the most important part is people, we seem to be quite an emotional bunch of people for some reason and for some reason people we like seem to get more business than ones we do not.

Hope that helps..

[mallyord]

pricethat can you explain further "5:Join a network who are used to dealing with people that are a bit new to it all. ( I am a fan of webgains for newbie merchants but others have personal favourites)
"

Cheers

Lisa

[pricethat]

Certainly, Not teaching others to suck eggs but just to make sure i answered correctly.

By network i mean an affiliate network that will allow you to list your affiliate scheme and they provide the tracking and the payment management all for you and us. This way you do not need to worry about technical details of an affiliate scheme and also you are providing us with the tools we need to do our job properly.

What i mean with regards to networks that are used to dealing with newbie merchants is that affiliate marketing is as much an art as it is a business and the problem for many affiliates is not the fact that they dont make sales, more so the merchant messes things up and more often than we can tolerate most of the time. Most new merchants foul up things not because of malice but because of lack of education as to why some things have to be certain ways.

Using webgains as an example and perfect reason why you would want to use a network as well, Webgains or other networks provide a very important buffer between the merchant and the affiliate, as affiliate marketing is about results the network is keen to work with the merchant to make sure everything is just perfect before the campaign starts, to date webgains is the only network i have seen that have everything just right (or at least i think so) before a new merchant starts and they take the time to teach the merchant or warn them what to expect. In effect they do most of the work or at least point merchants in the right direction to make sure it is all working fine.

For a merchant that does not have a few years experience in this type of marketing it is invaluable, for affiliates it is perfect as we know the people at the networks and already have a relationship with them which means you do not need to worry quite as much about creating relationships with us all individually, but often the best merchants are the ones that choose a network that most affiliates love and then further improve things by working and helping to recruit affiliates and generally just being a nice person etc etc.

Hope that helps..

Regards

PS: Just to clarify before people tear me apart, Webgains is an affiliate network, there are many more as well though the ONLY reason i mentioned them especially is that of all the networks out there webgains is the only network i have seen really take a lot of time with newbie or small merchants, lately it seems the time is all for the big boys for most of the larger networks.

[mallyord]

Thanks Pricethat