Are you thinking to pursue affiliate marketing but are not sure how to join an affiliate program? I have been a part of several different affiliate programs, so hopefully, this post helps explain the process to someone new to it.
The first thing is to find a business or company that has an affiliate marketing program. You can look around some of your favorite company’s websites (for example, any company you buy products or services from already). If the company has an affiliate program, usually there is a link somewhere on the website to click and learn more.
Read through the description of the affiliate program. Here are several questions I think about when considering a program to join:
- What is the affiliate commission structure paid to affiliates?
- Are all products available for an affiliate to sell, or only some?
- What are the prices of their products or services (all high-priced products, all low-cost, or a mix of prices)?
- How many sales does an affiliate have to make to get the first commission?
- Does the company hard code the affiliate? Hard code means if a customer buys via your affiliate link and then in the future purchases again but does not use your affiliate link, you still get credit. The customer is coded/linked to the affiliate for all future purchases.
- Does the company have any pre-made sales pages, sales funnels, or email sequences affiliates can use when promoting?
- Is there a cost to join the affiliate program? Many companies allow affiliates to join for free. If it is not free, then usually there is affiliate training and/or a bunch of affiliate sales and marketing services provided.
When you find an affiliate program you like, I would recommend emailing the company at least one question to confirm some of the information you read in the affiliate program description. If you do not get a reply back, or the response is different from what you read, that is usually a bad sign that the program is not organized and you might have issues getting paid. It happened to me, unfortunately.
If you sign up, what will happen is the company will provide you with a unique affiliate URL for the website. You use this special URL whenever you are promoting the products.
For example, I have a website http://www.businessbuildingonline.com. If I had an affiliate program and you signed up as an affiliate, I would give you a special affiliate URL such as http://www.businessbuildingonline.com/affiliate1. This URL goes to the same website as the regular URL http://www.businessbuildingonline.com. But because of the special affiliate URL slug (the ending after the /), if a customer goes to the website using your affiliate URL and purchases a product, you get credit as an affiliate and earn a commission.
You use your affiliate URL whenever you promote the product. This way if someone clicks on your promotion (whether a post on social media, online advertisement, etc.), the person gets to the company’s website via your affiliate link.
The affiliate program I am a part of now is for Dean Holland’s Internet Profits company. He is an expert in affiliate marketing who created his own program and has a successful coaching program for affiliate marketers.
It costs money to be an affiliate for his company. Each affiliate goes through a training program. It is great training, and it is all about how to be a successful affiliate. I joined because I wanted to learn from one of the best in the business. The cost to join is an investment in my future.
Two things in particular made me excited about Dean’s affiliate program. One, he has great products which are mainly training and coaching programs for people who want to build and grow an online business (either through affiliate marketing or selling one’s own product). I bought many of them and thought they were fantastic. I was happy to promote products I already bought, and think could help other people too. Another asset is that there are products available to promote at different price points, which is important as an affiliate. Having low-cost and higher-cost products helps in various ways.
Second, his affiliate program is the most done-for-you system I have ever seen. I have been a part of many sales organizations in my career in sales, and nothing compares to what Dean has put together for his affiliates.
In addition to offering training to affiliates, Dean also allows affiliates to use his proprietary sales funnels, sales pages, email templates, sales videos, and letters, and even an affiliate software system for building webpages, sending emails, etc. It is a total affiliate marketer’s toolkit that I could not find anywhere else.
I was looking for a true done-for-you solution for affiliate marketing where I could start as an affiliate and be promoting and sell on the same day. This was the answer I was looking for.
Plus, I had to speak with one of Dean’s associates before I could join as an affiliate. This is a sign of a good program- the company wants to speak with the affiliate and learn more about what the person’s goals are for being an affiliate. It means the company is invested in the success of the affiliate and cares enough to have a conversation first.
The reason I mention this is because it is important to find an affiliate program that resonates with you. Every program is different, and it is important to find something that excites you.
If you do some research and check out different programs, you will learn what type of program you want, and then it becomes easier to commit to a program once you find the right one.
So, there you have it, that is a basic overview of how to join an affiliate program!