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Building Affiliate Program Advice?

MakeMoreMoves

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I want to keep this as simple as possible

I have a physical goods product. I plan on building an affiliate program, but need opinions.

Options (All affiliates will be screened first)

1. Bare Affiliate - Invite affiliates to promote my product with through their audience. They have a commission link.

What I don’t like: hard to promote physical products without having them. All they got are my website assets to use to sell.

2. Rent Product Affiliate - Includes #1, but I ship them my product for a specific post or video through their audience. They send it back to me when they are done. Can either be PPP/PPV or promote for specific duration.

What I don’t like: Damaging product when sent back to me.

3. Free Product Affiliate - Includes #1 and #2, but Affiliate gets to keep the product.

What I don’t like: Cost and possibility of them not following through. Can probably be solved by contract. Lowest product version costs $80.


How common are affiliate contracts? Initially, I was just gonna invite them through email and that was it, but feel as if I should cover my basis, as in don’t sue me and you actually have to promote the product and not run.

What did you do when you first started your affiliate program? Note: Brand perception is very important to me, would rather have several high quality affiliates than a bunch of those that just spam links and negatively impacts brand.
 
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Eskil

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I've posted about this before as I have been on both sides of the affiliate fence. When I was an affiliate myself, I learned a lot about what makes a good offer to promote, networks to deal with, etc. I later took that knowledge to build out my own affiliate program once I had a physical product.

Of the options you mention here, #1 is by far the most common. Most affiliates never see or touch the products they sell but they can still do so successfully. If you're gonna send product to people, you're moving more into brand ambassador territory, which can be great on its own. But don't worry about this for the majority of the affiliates signing up. The 80/20 rule applies here of course so you will want to take good care of those few affiliates who are bringing in the most sales.

You do want to make sure affiliates agree to your terms, mostly to protect yourself from shady practices, or affiliates promoting your product with false claims and promises that can't be met. There's always those sketchy Bro Marketers (tm) who will do anything just to get those commissions and those types of guys could give two shits about your brand reputation. So - create a least a basic agreement that says they can only say certain things about the product and not say other things.

Also, and just as important is to specify where they are allowed to drive traffic from. If you're advertising on Facebook and Google yourself for example, you don't want any of your affiliates competing for ad space on those same platforms. Be clear on this. Same with bidding on your brand term, approval of ad creatives, etc.

I recommend setting up an email autoresponder for all new affiliates signing up, with frequent tips and tricks on how and where they can earn more by promoting your product. Also offer things like incentive bonuses, exclusive offers they can promote, higher commissions, etc. if they meet sales goals. These are things that will keep your affiliates active and happy long term. When the number of affiliates becomes too much for yourself to manage, I suggest outsourcing at least a part time affiliate manager (with experience, look on UpWork.com) to communicate and engage with them on a regular basis.
 

MakeMoreMoves

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I've posted about this before as I have been on both sides of the affiliate fence. When I was an affiliate myself, I learned a lot about what makes a good offer to promote, networks to deal with, etc. I later took that knowledge to build out my own affiliate program once I had a physical product.

Of the options you mention here, #1 is by far the most common. Most affiliates never see or touch the products they sell but they can still do so successfully. If you're gonna send product to people, you're moving more into brand ambassador territory, which can be great on its own. But don't worry about this for the majority of the affiliates signing up. The 80/20 rule applies here of course so you will want to take good care of those few affiliates who are bringing in the most sales.

You do want to make sure affiliates agree to your terms, mostly to protect yourself from shady practices, or affiliates promoting your product with false claims and promises that can't be met. There's always those sketchy Bro Marketers (tm) who will do anything just to get those commissions and those types of guys could give two shits about your brand reputation. So - create a least a basic agreement that says they can only say certain things about the product and not say other things.

Also, and just as important is to specify where they are allowed to drive traffic from. If you're advertising on Facebook and Google yourself for example, you don't want any of your affiliates competing for ad space on those same platforms. Be clear on this. Same with bidding on your brand term, approval of ad creatives, etc.

I recommend setting up an email autoresponder for all new affiliates signing up, with frequent tips and tricks on how and where they can earn more by promoting your product. Also offer things like incentive bonuses, exclusive offers they can promote, higher commissions, etc. if they meet sales goals. These are things that will keep your affiliates active and happy long term. When the number of affiliates becomes too much for yourself to manage, I suggest outsourcing at least a part time affiliate manager (with experience, look on UpWork.com) to communicate and engage with them on a regular basis.

Thanks dude, I sent out numerous emails with everything about giving value and what I can offer these guys. I ended up choosing giving free product as long term solution. Just waiting to hear back. These guys have all the leverage with their audience, I have no choice but to give lots of value or be ignored.
 

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