There are many companies and businesses that could benefit from having an affiliate program but don’t even know they really need one, much less how to start one.

To help you determine if you could benefit from having an affiliate program, I put together four quick reasons why you should consider starting an affiliate program:

1.    Extend your online marketing reach.
Rather than just relying on your one website, imagine having hundreds if not thousands of online affiliate marketers promoting your brand and products on their websites on your behalf.

2.    Give your online marketing unprecedented leverage.
Instead of just relying on your own online marketing efforts like PPC and SEO, you will be able to also leverage affiliate websites to promote your products, specials, coupons, and more. Starting an affiliate program will help you get onto hundreds if not thousands of targeted affiliate websites.

3.    Affiliate sales are incremental.
Frankly, these aren’t sales you would’ve gotten any other way. Affiliates are masters at pre-selling your products and persuading their audience to buy certain products or services over others. In fact, it is not uncommon to increase online sales by 25% or more by starting an affiliate program.

4.    Affiliate programs are highly cost effective.
Simply put, you do not have to pay affiliates to post your banner ads or text links on their websites. You only pay an agreed upon commission (which varies depending on your margin) when a sale is made.

You should really consider starting an affiliate program because your business can gain greater reach, leverage, awareness, incremental sales, all the while being highly cost effective.

But first, make sure your company is qualified to have an affiliate program and, if so, if you should hire an outsourced affiliate program management company to run it for you.

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven affiliate program management give us a call at (801) 365-0057 today!

A common question we always get is “are you an affiliate network?”

The simple answer is no, Net Media Group is not an affiliate network.

So who is Net Media Group we and what do we do?

Net Media Group is an online marketing agency and one of our services includes offering outsourced affiliate program management to companies who either don’t have the experience, personnel, or desire to manage their own affiliate program.

Given the confusion between an outsourced program management company (OPM) and an affiliate network I wanted to give you a basic overview on the differences.

What is an Affiliate Program Management Company?

Simply put, a client hires an outsourced program management company to manage their affiliate program on their behalf.

In addition:

• Outsourced program management companies employ affiliate managers and coordinators to help run their clients affiliate programs.
• They make recommendations on which affiliate network to join.
• They are also responsible for the day to day operation of the affiliate program.
• They handle all recruitment, management, and interaction with the affiliates on the client’s behalf.
• The affiliate manager uploads banner ads, text links, and datafeeds into the affiliate network so affiliate can promote the clients products.
• The outsourced program management company makes recommendations to the client regarding special deals, promotions, and contests and then promotes them to affiliates in the program.

What is an Affiliate Network?

An affiliate network is the technology that provides tracking, communication, and recruitment tools to run an affiliate program.

In addition:

• Google Affiliate Network, Linkshare, Commission Junction, ShareASale, and Avantlink all are examples of an affiliate network.
• An affiliate network is the market place for outsourced program managers to recruit, attract, and interact with affiliates.
• Affiliates apply to join the affiliate program in the affiliate network.
• Many confuse third party tracking software with an affiliate network. The difference will be explained in another post.
• All commission payments are handled through the affiliate network as well as 1099’s for U.S. based affiliates.
• Text links, banners ads, datafeeds, are uploaded into the affiliate network for affiliates to use and are all tracked by the affiliate network.

Hopefully this basic overview helps you understand the difference between an affiliate program management company and an affiliate network.

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven affiliate program management give us a call at (801) 365-0057 today!

Once you have made the decision that you need to hire an affiliate program management company, you will need to closely examine a few things outside of just the cost structure to ensure you partner with the right outsourced affiliate program management (OPM) company.

How to Select an Affiliate Program Management Company

1. Look for proven experience.
   It’s not critical that the affiliate program management company you work with has direct experience selling in your category. What’s more important is how experienced they are in recruitment, optimization, and activation and how they can leverage that experience for your brand.
2. Don’t be fooled by large numbers of affiliates.
   Many affiliate management companies boast about how many affiliates they work with. While that can imply they are well networked, affiliate programs routinely follow the 80/20 rule where 20% of the affiliates drive 80% or better of the revenue in the program. Therefore, having the top tier affiliates in your program is more important than the gross number you have.
3. Activity in the affiliate marketing community.
   This is a good indicator that they are abreast of any current affiliate issues or practices. Do they participate in affiliate discussion forums? Do they attend affiliate conferences? Do they speak at affiliate events? These can help you determine how engaged they are in the affiliate space which can give you a pulse on their operation. Are they visible?
4. Reputation.
   Is the OPM Company known for its ethical practices? Do they have a rock solid reputation or one that isn’t what you expected? Do a search online and see what people are saying about them. You may be very surprised by what you can find sometimes.
5. Procedures to enforce trademark policies.
   If brand or trademark is an issue, how will the outsourced affiliate program management company enforce your brand standards and trademark policies? Do they police your brand for you? Is it even on their radar? If an affiliate program management company talks about brand and trademark protection, it can be a very good sign.
6. What kind of screening process they employ.
   Some affiliate program management companies auto approve affiliates without manually screening affiliates while others carefully review the affiliates to make sure there is a good fit and that no pornography or gambling related sites sneak through.
7. Affiliate network selection process.
   What affiliate network your company recommends for your affiliate program can make a big difference when launching an affiliate program. Some will promote an inhouse solution while others will recommend a third party affiliate network or a hybrid of both.
   Ask how they determine which network you will go into and if they want to place your affiliate program in a traditional affiliate network or a CPA network. They are NOT the same thing and will be detailed in a future post. Suffice it to say, the methods used to promote your product are VERY different between the two types of networks.
   If you hear “because that’s what we always use” or “because we can generate high volume” you may want to reconsider.
8. First tier vs. second tier affiliates.
   If you care anything about your brand, you want to focus on first tier affiliate programs. Second tier affiliate programs are when an affiltiae manager approves one affiliate and that affiliate invites and approves others to promote your products and make additional commission on their sales. What can go wrong here is that you and the affiliate management company just lost control of who is promoting your product, and how they are promoting it.
9. Evaluate their recruiting prowess.
   Recruiting is the hardest job in affiliate management. So, you’ll want to ask a few questions. Do they just work within the established affiliate network or do they go outside of the network? Do they primarily focus on recruiting deal sites or do they go after niche based affiliates like datafeeders, review sites, video bloggers, etc? This can tell you a lot about what you can expect from the affiliate program management company.

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven affiliate program management give us a call at (801) 365-0057 today!

While many companies try to manage their own affiliate programs, other companies are turning to a far easier solution – hiring an outsourced affiliate management company, also known as an OPM, to do it for them.

Top 10 Reasons to Hire an Affiliate Program Management Company

Here are 10 top reasons why hiring an outsourced program management company (OPM) for your affiliate program might be the best course of action for your company.

1. It can make good financial sense.

While all affiliate sales are incremental with commissions being paid on a percentage basis whenever a sale is generated, you will also need to compensate the affiliate management company to launch, maintain, and grow your affiliate program.

There are three basic models for paying affiliate management companies: 1) A monthly retainer which is a fixed cost 2) a percentage of sales which is incremental and 3) a hybrid solution. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses which will be covered in a future post.

The fact is, the cost to hire an outsourced affiliate program management company usually outweighs the cost of hiring internally when you factor in salaries, bonuses, benefits, taxes, supplies, etc. Therefore, it can make good financial sense to hire out the management of your affiliate program.

2.    You gain access to a team of resources.

Most companies hire one person to run their affiliate program internally. Or, they have someone add on the responsibility of running the affiliate program with no previous experience and as a result, the program withers on the vine. Running your affiliate program on auto pilot is never a good idea, either.

An outsourced program management company usually has multiple people working on one account. More resources means more can get done, faster. It also means more people will properly give it the time and attention it needs to grow.

3.    You get instant access to proven affiliates.

When you hire an experienced affiliate program management company to run your affiliate program, you tap into long established relationships with hundreds if not thousands of proven affiliates. One email from a reputable affiliate manager can help you get instant trust and traction that you just can’t get on your own.

4.    You immediately tap into years of knowledge and experience.

Most trusted outsourced program managers have been in the business for at least 3-5 years. Working with experienced affiliate management companies can help you avoid the common pitfalls and focus on the increase in revenue this channel can provide. In addition, OPM’s know how to attract, retain, and activate affiliates and work with all the various affiliate networks.

5.    They know where to find the right affiliates.

Experienced affiliate program management companies know which affiliate networks to enter to recruit affiliates based on your product or industry.

They may even already know several “super affiliates” in your niche and have direct access to them. This can go a long way in getting the right kinds of affiliates active and generating sales in your affiliate program.

6.    They understand effective promotional techniques.

A big part of affiliate marketing is incentivizing your affiliates with the proper financial motivation at the right time.

Outsourced affiliate management companies know how to get affiliates attention with monthly, quarterly, or seasonal creative promotions and contests that help sky rocket sales.

7.    OPM’s know how to recruit – The hardest job in affiliate marketing.

Just because you launch in a large affiliate network doesn’t mean all of the best affiliates will immediately start promoting your products. You still have to do some heavy recruiting to get the best affiliates into your affiliate program.

Seasoned affiliate management companies will have their affiliate managers and coordinators scour the internet, affiliate network, and affiliate contacts to find and qualify opportunities you would never have imagined or been able to get on your own.

They also know what to say to prospects to get their attention because contacting potential affiliate’s cold is a part of their everyday lives.

8. They can help optimize the channel.

Once you have affiliates active in your program, you’ll definitely want them to produce more for your affiliate program. That’s where optimization campaigns come into play.

Seasoned outsourced program management companies know how to get more sales out of their existing affiliate base because they have one to one relationships with them.  They can find out why your product isn’t being promoted as much and what can be done to fix it.

9. They get affiliates active.

In every affiliate program, there are hundreds if not thousands of dormant affiliates who have joined an affiliate program but have never pulled a banner, text link, or much less made a sale.

Think of all the potential you might have overlooked here.

Hiring an OPM can help you get more of these affiliates active. They’ll use proactive techniques to get the affiliates attention and get them to open lines of communication that can lead to them becoming active in your affiliate program.

10. They already know the affiliate management tools inside and out.

OPM’s live and breathe in the affiliate networks. So, they know how to use the affiliate management tools for maximum efficiency as well as the secrets to contacting the right affiliates within the network.

When you don’t have the time, experience, or internal resources to effectively and proactively manage your affiliate program, it’s time to seriously consider hiring an experienced outsourced affiliate program management company.

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven affiliate program management give us a call at (801) 365-0057 and we’ll contact you within 24 business hours.