Late introducing myself here...

[Jim Musselwhite]

Hi everyone. I'm excited about being a new member here, and look forward to learning as well as contributing where I can. I have made some posts, but they are promotions in nature. It's about time I introduced myself.

Anyone interested in discussing affiliate management as it relates to serving the needs of product/service owners who need help with their affiliate program? Let me know. I'm in the business full-time. Of course, joint ventures go hand-in-hand with rapidly developing any affiliate program.

Product/service owners who market via the web understand that affiliate programs are the best way, for the investment, to grow revenue. However, they typically do not have the time and/or the expertise to effectively manage their own affiliate program.

Consider these challenges:

-Structure or advise on the implementation of the affiliate program
(e.g. open or closed, 1-tier or 2-tier, affiliate commission rate, etc.)
-Research potential new affiliates
-Recruit new affiliates
-Train affiliates
-Ongoing communication and management of affiliates

They might ask themselves these questions...
How important is my affiliate program to growing my business?
Do I have the time to manage the program myself?
Do I have the expertise, or interest, in doing it myself?

Then, determine what are the core business functions that demand your personal, day-to-day attention. Outsource everything else that must also get done. More and more, that means affiliate management.

We are all like-minded entrepreneurs. Let me know how I can help any one of you.

[Charity Adams]

Jim

What is your approach to finding new affiliates in niche markets.

1. How do you seek appropriate web site owners
2. Do you have a template email you start with
3. What is the best approach to reach maximum success

[Jim Musselwhite]

First, a few key principles to uphold when researching and recruiting for new website owners:

Affiliate/JV managers cannot be all things to all markets. They need to focus on a niche themselves, because when reaching out to find the leaders in a niche for a given client, one has much research to do. If you are starting from scratch and you don't know the players, or worse don't have a relationship with the players, then it becomes that much more difficult to make headway. You end up diluting your efforts. So, I suggest all affiliate/JV manager focus on a niche, at least in the beginning.

Know what assets you are seeking in a propsective affiliate/JV. There must be an affinity between your program (or your client's program) and that of the affiliate/JV you seek to partner. Ideally, one party has a product or service offering, and the other has significant access to the market (large customer base or subscriber base).

In terms of proactively reaching out to someone, the BEST way to find affiliates/JVs is the oldest approach--meeting them at conferences or any meeting where you can get to really know the person. The second best way is the telephone. The third best way is direct mail. Email is definitely NOT the best way to initiate contact with someone as the response rate is dismal, dismal, dismal. I don't think it will get any better.

So, how does one research the market? One way is to use an "affiliate finder", such as SEO Elite, or LinkCapture, or Aurelis to name a few. I use SEO Elite, but LinkCapture is actually a little better becuase it also uncovers phone numbers and postal addresses while SEO Elite basically gives you a generic email address that it finds on the site. The way these programs work is that you search all linking partners by domain or by keyword.

Two things to keep in mind. These programs are NOT good at uncovering contact information. You still have to do some heavy lifting to find phone numbers and working email addresses. Secondly, do NOT use the built-in email functions to mail out to prospects. They will consider it spam, and that's the last thing you need if you're truly attempting to build any kind of relationship.

That's it for now. A BIG, BIG subject to think about, indeed.