Let Your Affiliates Become Your Recruiters b

Have you ever thought that your affiliates could drive even more business to you by having an affiliate program for your affiliate program?Before you have a nose bleed, this is simply achieved by offering your current affiliates a two tier payment mechanism. The first tier is the one they are on now; they get paid for referring business directly to you.The second tier is a payment to the affiliate for any business produced by someone else that they have recommended joins your affiliate program. This guy is what is known in the trade as a "sub-affiliate".For example, Joe sends you business each week and notices that you offer a two tier scheme, he then thinks, I know some people who'd be interested in promoting this too! So he gets Fred, Barney, Betty and Wilma to sign up to your affiliate program.In doing that, you give Joe a commission percentage of the sales they have generated. This could be a 5% on top of what you would pay normally. Do you see the benefit from Joe doing this? He may refer people that will sell much more product that he can yet he will still earn and income, and that can be great for doing very little work!It is a true Win, Win, Win! The affiliate is happy, the sub affiliate is happy as he has a new program to promote, and you are happy because without the Affiliate you'd have to try and find these affiliates. Trust me some of these super affiliates that can really turn around your business are real hard to find! This way is only going to cost you an extra 5% on sales.Now before I get you too carried away, you really need to think about adding a two tier structure at the get go or make sure you have the profit margins, reducing your affiliate's commissions just to introduce a two tier structure will not motivate anyone.You have to make sure any new commissions come out of your end not the affiliates.Having said that, a two tier affiliate program can launch you and your affiliate revenues into the stratosphere.How to I set up a Two Tier System?One of the drawbacks to the major affiliate networks is that not many offer a Two Tier System. With this in mind it might be best to use an "in house" affiliate solution to run along side any existing affiliate program you may have and invite affiliates to join. The best solution that I have used is AssocTrac by the Internet Marketing Center. It is a software solution that runs off your own web server and you have full control over everything. It is also relatively simple to setup and run.The other solution that works fantastically well is My Affiliate Program (MYAP) by Kowabunga Technologies. This is a hosted service, i.e. it sits on someone else's server. This has its advantages too. It is quick to implement, the learning curve is not as high as AssocTrac. The downside I suppose is the feeling of a lack of ownership. Click here to read more about My Affiliate Program (MYAP)How to I promote a Two Tier System?If you have an existing program with a large affiliate network that doesn't offer a two tier system then it may be an idea to create an in-house system such as AssocTrac or MYAP and then invite key Affiliates into a Two Tier Scheme. Make sure though that if this is what you do, you only offer the second tier. Let them continue to earn there income through your affiliate network partner.You don't want to be in breach of your terms and conditions.Secondly, tell your affiliate network what you are trying to do. They may not have an off the shelf solution but they may be able to find a way of managing within your existing affiliate management tool.If you don't have an affiliate program currently running then it may be easier to start with MYAP or AssocTrac. You can then use your Two Tier system as an incentive for affiliates to join and start recruiting other Affiliates.As you can see, there are good reasons why you should look at a two tier system; in fact I can't see a good reason not too! It will drive sales, motivate affiliates, and have your affiliates actively marketing your program for you!Good Luck!

Categories Of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the greatest internet-marketing sources that promotes the services and products of your company. Earlier, affiliate-marketing programs have never been as popular before as it is today. Is there any specific reason for that? There can be a number of reasons. The most probable reason, however, could be the fact that the benefits of affiliate marketing have become clearer to many people now than they were before.Today, as become have become internet savvy and they know the importance of the internet and affiliate marketing over the internet. Both merchants and affiliates can see the benefits of affiliate marketing for both of them. The merchant sees affiliate marketing today as the chance to advertise their products at a lower cost. The affiliates, on the other hand, sees affiliate marketing as an easy way of earning profits online by doing what they like most, and that is by creating websites. For merchants and affiliates alike, affiliate marketing is now considered as a main source of profits and revenues.There are actually different types or classes of affiliate marketing, and the number of types will depend on how one will classify them. The most basic affiliate marketing programs, however, falls under two categories: pay-per-click (PPC), and pay-per-performance (PPP).Pay Per Click (PPC)PPC is the most popular type of affiliate marketing for affiliates with small websites, and probably the easiest way for them to earn money. In this affiliate marketing type, the merchant pays his affiliate whenever a visitor is referred to his site, that is whenever someone clicks through the merchant's banner or text ads. The affiliate gets paid a certain amount even if the visitor he referred does not purchase anything from the merchant's site. However, typical fees for PPC affiliate programs are small, usually not exceeding a dollar for every click.Pay Per Performance (PPP)PPP affiliate marketing is the most popular among merchants and is the most lucrative type for the affiliates. In this type of affiliate program, the merchant only pays the affiliate whenever his referral translates into an action--that is whenever the visitor he has referred actually buys something from the merchant's site or when the visitor becomes a lead.
Pay-per-performance affiliate marketing can be further classified into two popular types: pay-per-sales (PPS) and pay-per-lead (PPL).Pay Per Sale (PPS)In a pay-per-sale type of affiliate marketing, the merchants pay the affiliates a certain fee whenever the visitors he has referred to the merchant's site actually buys something from the merchant's site. Affiliates are often paid on commission basis, although other merchants would opt to pay a fixed fee. But no matter what the basis of the fee is, it is generally higher than the fee paid to affiliates in a pay-per-click affiliate program.Pay Per Lead (PPL)The pay-per-lead type of affiliate marketing is a slight variation of the PPS type and is often used by insurance and finance companies and other companies who rely on leads for their company to grow. In this type of affiliate marketing, the affiliate is paid whenever the visitor he referred to the merchant's site fills up an application form or any similar form related to the business of the company.Aside from these three specific types of affiliate marketing, a lot of other affiliate marketing types exist. If the classification is based on the depth of the affiliate network, it can be classified as single-tier, two-tier, and multi-tier affiliate marketing.