Signing up is only the beginningBy Glenn Sobel
Wouldn't it be great if merchants paid you just
to sign up for their affiliate programs? Then
you could just surf the net for every program
you can find and sign up for all of them. You
wouldn't even have to waste your time building
a banner farm since you already made your money.
Sounds great, right? Too bad it doesn't work
that way.
Okay, since we all know it doesn't, why are so
many people signing up for programs that they
never even put a link on their site to? Although
detailed statistics are hard to come by, it
appears that there may be as many as 50% or more
of affiliate program sign-ups that never even
generate an impression let alone a click through.
What does this tell us? I guess the over-
generalized answer is that affiliates are either
too lazy to follow through on their new affiliations, or they are not taking the time to think
through what they have done until they have
completed the sign up and then changed their
minds.
Remember, I said that is the "over-generalized
answer." It's the obvious "jump to conclusion"
response, but I doubt it's the completely
accurate answer. What else could it be, you ask?
I know my merchant friends won't like this, but
I put a lot of the blame on them. Why? Because
they have a real problem with the following
areas:
1. When their site is confusing and their
method of delivering affiliate links is difficult or impossible to follow, affiliates give
up in frustration and move on to the next one.
2. When merchants use deceptive or misleading
promo materials to get you to sign up, they
lose you when you complete the process and
realize you've been had.
3. When merchants don't let the affiliate see
the type of materials offered (banners, buttons,
text promo, etc.) until after they sign up,
disappointment in these materials can lead to a
loss of interest.
I have seen too many programs that try to keep
important elements secret until after you
complete your sign-up, only to find that once
you know everything you should have known in
advance you no longer want to promote their
product or service.
So what is the solution to the problem? Here
are my recommendations:
1. Show and tell EVERYTHING to affiliates that
they need to know BEFORE you ask them to register.
2. Don't misrepresent the opportunity while you
try to hide the dirty truth in the small print of
the affiliate agreement.
3. Encourage potential affiliates to think through
how they will benefit from, and promote, your
program before they sign up.
4. Make sure your site is easy to use and make it
as easy as possible for affiliates to get their
special links whenever it's convenient for them.
THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!
5. Respond to affiliate inquiries in a timely
and complete fashion. Failure to do so causes
most quality affiliates to write you off as
unworthy.
As someone in a position to see the effects
of affiliates who sign up for programs and
never do anything beyond that, I can tell
you it's a frustrating waste of time for us
all. It's a total lose-lose situation.
Affiliates are wasting their time and
becoming negative on the income potential of
these programs. Emails are flying all over
the place, statistics are being distorted,
unrealistic expectations are created, all
for nothing.
So instead of blaming each other, let's get
our houses in order and start focusing our
efforts on what we came here for, making
money!
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This article is copyright Glenn Sobel (1999) and is reprinted here by permission of the author.
Glenn is the owner of AffiliateAdvisor.com, an information and resource site for affiliates and merchants. He is available for consulting onaffiliate programs and domain names.
No republication of this article is permitted unless it is done in its entirety including the title, credit block above and this rights block. Resale rights NOT included. Please notify Mr. Sobel at YourWebURL@aol.com.