A merchant affiliate program is an integral part of any online business whether it's big or small. If you are the owner of a small ecommerce website, you can still effectively use it to generate massive amounts of traffic and sales. Find out how to harness the power of an affiliate program and how to grow your business exponentially. Big name retailers have used this technique for years to build a thriving business and brand. It's now easier than ever for you to get in on the action.
A merchant affiliate program is not only one of the most effective marketing tools in your arsenal, it is also one of the most affordable. Unlike traditional advertising where you are required to pay up front not knowing whether or not it can actually help your business, with an affiliate program you don't pay a dime unless you start making sales. It's literally like having an army of salespeople doing all the hard work for you and you pay them a commission if they get paying customers to your site. The benefits of having an affiliate program software are enormous. Affiliates promote your links which help to increase your traffic which leads to more sales. As a result of all of the backlinks your affiliates are spreading across the internet, your web site will get better search engine ranking which will result in more organic traffic and even more sales.
You must first make sure your e-commerce solution provides a built-in completely integrated affiliate program software. Once you set up the commission structure and everything else, you can start to find the right affiliates to help promote your site. How a merchant affiliate program works is someone registers and gives you their information to join your program. Then they are able to publish your text links, image links and banner ads on their web sites, blogs and forums throughout the web. The important thing for you to keep in mind is you have to choose people that actually have the ability to help you the most, ideally someone who already has a website with relevant information or is in the same niche. It is also your job to warn your affiliates against spamming, because ultimately they are putting your reputation on the line. The best method for getting better targeted affiliates to help promote your site is to offer them all the tools they need to make their job easier. Have professionally written sales letters, text, image and banner links available for them to simply copy and use wherever they want. Send out new alerts for seasonal or promotional discounts to remind them of your affiliate program, because a large number of people who join fail to do anything. The key is to stay on top of your affiliates and give them what they need to do the job efficiently.
There are several features to look for when choosing an ecommerce solution that has an affiliate program software. Here is a list of what they must be able to do:
- Be fully automated
- Track affiliate referrals and sales
- Calculate commissions
- Record and report payments
- Have an easy signup process
- Allow you to set up commission structure
- Provide an admin area for your affiliates
- Have recurring payouts
- Provide auto generated affiliate links
- Have mailing functions to contact affiliates
- Store cookies
- Have fraud protection
A lot more goes into having a successful merchant affiliate program than just setting it up on your ecommerce website. You must actively promote the program in order to get the scalability you need to have a large team of affiliates hard at work for you. Make sure you submit your program information to affiliate directories and networks. If you list it under the right category, you should be able to attract targeted affiliates. Another good way to get the right people to join is to actively search for them. Check out discussion forums, websites and blogs that are related to your products and contact people you think will be appropriate. Do a search of your direct competitors and find out which sites are actively promoting them. Then reach out to those webmasters and introduce your store and affiliate program. Last but not least, don't forget how important it is to have good on page SEO. Choose relevant keywords describing your products and merchant affiliate program and remember to include it throughout your affiliate sign up page. Good SEO does a great job of attracting people specifically searching for the kind of products you have to promote.
An e-commerce solution that features an affiliate program software will give you the opportunity to work with a large group of affiliates. Choosing the right solution to handle and manage all of your potential affiliates is critical. It must be easily set up and work well on its own so that you are free to focus on other aspects of the business.
What you need is a full service all-in-one hosting, design, and marketing software made specifically for e-commerce businesses. One that lets you set up your store in minutes, and provides powerful tools to help with not only affiliate programs, but also product marketing and mobile commerce. Check out the best possible e-commerce solutions available at http://www.makeanonlinestore.com and try them out yourself absolutely free, no credit card required!
