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Defining your responsibilities as an Affiliate can be a tough job! When you sign up for most programs, you see that you need to fill out a form, agree to some terms and place a link on your site. Complete these and Ta-Da - You're an Affiliate!

Although it's not magical - It is true that fulfilling each of these simple responsibilities will make you an "Affiliate". But - as any Affiliate manager will tell you, there are hundreds of Affiliates, but very few successful Affiliates. The only differences between an Affiliate and a Successful Affiliate are: commission checks and effort. Affiliates rarely get commission checks because they rarely go the extra mile to ensure those checks.

To be a Successful Affiliate, you'll learn that your job is to go above and beyond the basic responsibilities and earn your commission checks! You only have two real responsibilities: Signing Up and Posting a Link. Fulfilling these is easy and going above and beyond is a snap – and FREE!

= = It's Your Responsibility to
= = Sign up for the program
Now, this is easy enough - fill out the form and press the "submit" button.

>> It's to Your Benefit to
>> Keep your information up to date
Remember to keep your contact information up to date. If you move and don't tell your merchant - they'll have a tough time sending you your checks each month! Let your merchant know about any changes in your contact info including your postal address, phone number, email address, company name and URL.

= = It's Your Responsibility to:
= = Post a link to your merchant's site
When you sign up for an Affiliate Program, you'll get information on linking to your merchant's site. In most cases, this will be a few simple lines of code for displaying a banner. You may also find a text link or a simply hyperlink to use on your site or in email messages, classified ads or newsgroup postings.

>> It's to Your Benefit to:
>> Post several links to your merchant
Don't stop at banner advertising! Look to see if your merchant offers additional linking methods like articles, email ads, signature files, rotating images, product images, guestbooks and so on! The more links you post - the better your chances are of making a sale.

If you simply place a banner on one of your webpages and expect the commission checks to come rolling in - you're going to be disappointed! In order to earn commissions – you have to become an active Affiliate. Place a few banners on your site, an article and a guestbook in your resource section, another article and an ad in your newsletter and a testimonial wherever you can fit one.

If your merchant doesn't offer extra linking methods – tell them you want more. No merchant will argue with an Affiliate that wants more ways to promote their site.

>> It's also to Your Benefit to… <<
-- Stay Informed: (Reading this article is a great start!) Stay on top of new techniques and strategies.

-- Talk with your merchant: Ask your merchant to review your site and suggest areas to add links. Also, ask them what their most successful Affiliates are doing to earn their commissions. Above all, stay in touch with them. Read their newsletters and let them know what you're doing to promote their site.

-- Use the Products and Services: If you aren't using your merchants products and services - give them a try! Tell your visitors that you use the products and services and relay your experiences - a testimonial is a powerful tool!

-- Start a Newsletter: Starting your own newsletter is a great way to establish a following and a reputation of an expert. Use your newsletter to deliver useful information to your subscribers along with advertisements or advice about your merchant's products and services.

-- Post to newsgroups: Get involved with newsgroups and other discussion forums. The web hosts thousands of forums on hundreds of topics. Find one that you are interested in and become an active participant! Don't SPAM to these forums with advertising messages - but join in the discussions and use your Affiliate link in your signature files.

-- Advertise your second tier: Let your visitors know that you belong to a merchant's Affiliate Program and invite them to join. You'll be able to earn second tier commissions off of the sales these new Affiliates generate!

Here are a few examples of what you can expect by going the extra mile:

For the purpose of these examples: we'll say that your merchant pays a $10 first tier and a $1 second tier commission on each sale. We'll use a 10% clicks-to-impressions ratio and a 1% sales-to-clicks ratio. This means that for every 100 impressions we'll see 10 clicks and for every 100 clicks we'll see 1 sale.

Example 1: Simply Fulfilling your responsibilities
Let's say you simply fulfill your Affiliate responsibilities by placing a banner on your home page. You receive 200 unique hits each day. You'll send your merchant about 20 visitors a day - about every five days, you'll make a sale. At the end of the month - you'll receive a check for 6 sales or $60.

Example 2: Adding an Article
Now, let's imagine that on top of the banner on your home page, you also add an article on your resources page. We'll assume that this page gets about 25% of the daily traffic that your home page does. So, you'll get about 50 visitors to that page every day, around 5 of them will click through to your merchant's site. Every twenty days, you'll make a sale. So, at the end of the month, your check will be for 7 to 8 sales or $70 to $80. (Now, that's a nice increase for posting an article to a low traffic area on your site!)

Example 3: Adding an Advertisement to your E-zine
Now, on top of the banner on your home page and the article on your resources page, let's imagine that you place an ad in your monthly newsletter that currently has 1,000 subscribers. Around 100 of these subscribers will click- through to your merchant's site, and 10 of them will purchase. At the end of the month - your check will include 17 sales - that's $170!

Example 4: Building your Second Tier
Okay -- now let's go a step further and imagine that on top of the banner, article and ezine ad, you also place a testimonial on your site about joining and belonging to your merchant's Affiliate Program. Let's imagine that each visitor that clicks-through and signs up does the bare minimum as we talked about in Example 1. You'll still earn an extra $6 per month per second-tier Affiliate! Imagine the possibilities if they go the extra mile and post all of the links explained in Example 3!

Obviously, the more work you do - the more sales you can hope to attain! Don't get overwhelmed though – marketing your Affiliation is nothing like marketing your own products and services. Your merchant will be doing all of the hard work! All you have to do is get the word out there. Your merchant will handle all of the incoming inquiries, follow-ups, customer services, sale activities and support. Plus - in the end, you'll receive a heafty check for little work!

About the Author:
Rachel Honoway is the Director of Marketing for KowaBunga!
Technologies, maker of My Affiliate Program Software.
To learn more about My Affiliate Program Software, visit:
http://www.myaffiliateprogram.com/u/a/b.asp?id=2689
Email: mailto:myaffiliateprogram.2689@optinpro.com for instant information

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