How to

Motivate
Your Affiliates
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

Table Of Content

Introduction 3

A HAPPY AFFILIATE IS A SELLING M ACHINE! 4

HOW TO USE CONTESTS AS A M OTIVATOR 6

REWARD FOR PERFORM ANCE 8

AFFILIATES AND FUTURE M OTIVATION 10

PROVIDING AFFILIATE TOOLS 13

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 17

2
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

Thank you for taking the time to read this important guide. If
you, like many others, have affiliates promoting your products or
services, then you know that you need to do everything that you
can to keep them motivated and most importantly, KEEP THEM
SELLING! This is especially important for affiliates just starting out
who don’t have a clue how to go about selling products.

Y
our affiliates are the mechanisms that
DRIVE sales, so it’s obviously in your
best interest to keep your affiliates
happy, motivated and knowledgeable.
If they are successful, YOU will be
successful!It’s as simple as that.
One thing to remember is that if you keep your
affiliates happy you will build loyalty among the
ranks. This lays the foundation for a strong and loyal
sales force. After all, your main goal is to generate
more sales and keep them coming. You can only do
that if you keep your affiliates happy and content.
product, they will go on to greener pastures.
DON’T let the competition snag them away from
you!
Your affiliates are in this to make money, it’s
no secret that is their motivation, first and
foremost. However, they also need to feel that
they are valuable to you. If they don’t feel that
their contribution is considered of value, they
will again, move on. They won’t waste their time
on something that they see are wasteful. Your
job is to keep them focused and excited about
promoting and selling your products.

In order to keep you affiliates happy you have to
use a variety of tactics that appeals to a wide
variety of affiliates. For example, some will be
motivated by higher commissions, some will jump
at a chance to win a contest and others may
gravitate towards something as simple as faster
commission payments or a lower threshold to
receive their commissions.
In addition, they need to feel that your product
has great value and will be in demand. If they
don’t feel that you are offering a quality
Whatever technique you decide to use, you need
to make sure that it has wide appeal. It is not a
“one size fits all” situation. Each affiliate is unique
and each has their own earning plan and agenda
for financial success. As such, your ability to
keep them happy will depend on how they are
treated and what incentives you provide to them.
While there are many ways that you can keep your
affiliates happy, here are a few tips that you can
implement right away to give you a jump start.

This guide will help you get them on track and keep them on track.
It will cover 5 essential areas that will make motivating your affiliates
to promote your products a cinch. This guide will help you get them
on track and keep them on track. It will cover 5 essential areas that
will make motivating your affiliates to promote your products a
cinch.
3
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

A HAPPY AFFILIATE IS A SELLING M

ACHINE!

Y
our affiliates are the mechanisms that
DRIVE sales, so it’s obviously in your
best interest to keep your affiliates
happy, motivated and knowledgeable.
If they are successful, YOU will be
successful! It’s as simple as that.
One thing to remember is that if you keep your
affiliates happy you will build loyalty among the
ranks. This lays the foundation for a strong and loyal
sales force. After all, your main goal is to generate
more sales and keep them coming. You can only do
that if you keep your affiliates happy and content.
contribution is considered of value, they will again,
move on. They won’t waste their time on something
that they see are wasteful. Your job is to keep them
focused and excited about promoting and selling
your products.
Whatever technique you decide to use, you need
to make sure that it has wide appeal. It is not a
“one size fits all” situation. Each affiliate is unique
and each has their own earning plan and agenda
for financial success. As such, your ability to keep
them happy will depend on how they are treated
and what incentives you provide to them.

In order to keep you affiliates happy you have to
use a variety of tactics that appeals to a wide variety
of affiliates. For example, some will be motivated
by higher commissions, some will jump at a
chance to win a contest and others may gravitate
towards something as simple as faster commission
payments or a lower threshold to receive their
commissions.
In addition, they need to feel that your product has
great value and will be in demand. If they don’t feel
that you are offering a quality product, they will go
on to greener pastures. DON’T let the competition
snag them away from you!
Your affiliates are in this to make money, it’s no
secret that is their motivation, first and foremost.
However, they also need to feel that they are
valuable to you. If they don’t feel that their
While there are many ways that you can keep your
affiliates happy, here are a few tips that you can
implement right away to give you a jump start.
• Offer a quality product – Don’t expect anyone
to get excited about selling a product that is just
regurgitated junk that is already found across the
net. A good affiliate expects to promote a quality
product to maximize their commissions. Always
offer them top quality products and they’ll be more
than happy to sell it.
• Offer the highest commission possible - If you
don’t then you’ll attract lowerquality affiliates
who will produce fewer sales. To attract the best
affiliates possible, pay what they’re worth to your
business. In this case, you will get what you PAY for!
NEVER skimp here.

• Establish a multi-tier payout program - Top affiliates are looking to

get the most from their efforts. They will gravitate more so towards a
program that offers secondary income above what they generate in
sales. Create a system that provides commissions on sales from new
affiliates that were referred to the program by an existing affiliate.
4
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

If you choose to do this, you should be aware that PayPal does NOT
allow multitier programs, so you won’t be able to collect payments
or pay affiliates using PayPal. If you do, you run the risk of having
your PayPal account frozen, and all of your money will be lost. Keep
this in mind if you want to use a multi-tier affiliate program.

• Pay on time - Be very clear on pay schedules
and payment thresholds. More importantly, make
sure to consistently PAY ON TIME each and every
month. You will build credibility with your affiliates
and they will be happy knowing they can count on
receiving commissions on time each month.
• Multiple Payment Options – It’s a good idea to
offer several different methods of payment to
your affiliates. Again, “one size fits all” does not
apply here. For instance, your affiliate may be
uncomfortable with processors like PayPal and
would prefer receiving a check or money order.
Many affiliates like direct deposit into their bank
accounts and some may prefer wire transfers. The
more ways you can offer to pay them, the more
likely it is that you will make your affiliates happy.
Variety is the spice of life!
• Keep in touch – You have to periodically let your
affiliates know that you appreciate them.
They can never be left to feel that they are forgotten
because they never hear from you. Every once in a
while just to touch base and make sure the affiliate
isn’t having any problems with promotions, drop
them an email and ask how things are going and
how you can help. Don’t email too often, but an
occasional email will let your affiliates know that
you care and are there if they need you.
• Offer exclusivity – Create a special training area
on your site for your affiliate network.
Everyone likes to feel special and this type of setting
will make your affiliates feel that they are part of an
exclusive group or team.
• Make them feel valuable - Your affiliates have to
feel like they have value in order to remain loyal to
you. A happy affiliate will be one that feels valued.
Make them feel exclusive and important to your
business and they will repay you with loyalty and
stick around for a long time to come. Even if the sales
do not come immediately, a loyal affiliate will stick
it out until they do. Making your affiliates happy is
KEY in maximizing profits for your business!
Remember that keeping your affiliates happy may
not be an easy task and may take up time. But it
will be time well spent. ALWAYS be available to
your affiliates and respond to their questions,
comments and complaints as fast as possible.
If they have a complaint, don’t take it personal,
seize the opportunity to fine tune your program to
make it even better for your affiliates.
If the same type of complaint comes from various
affiliates, then maybe it is time to overhaul the
program and make corrections. The bottom line to
keep your affiliates happy is to PAY ATTENTION to
their needs.

HAPPY AFFILIATES = MOTIVATED AND PRODUCTIVE AFFILIATES!

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HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

HOW TO USE CONTESTS AS A M

OTIVATOR

C
ontests are a great tool to use to keep
things fun and motivate your affiliates.
Many Affiliate Managers have said
that the use of contests among their
affiliates has motivated them to sell
more products. Everyone’s blood gets
pumping during a competition and participants
keep their eye on the prize, which drives them to
win the contest.
Let’s face it, everyone gets bored with things they
are doing and it is far easier to give it up than to
push on. In order to push on you need incentives,
and contests provide the incentive needed to
build excitement and desire to get your affiliates
promoting and selling your products.
I am sure you have seen the big product launches
where dozens of affiliates offer huge bonus
packages if you purchase the product through
their affiliate link. They do this because they want to
win the contest that the product owner is running.
The contest gives them an incredible incentive to
promote the product heavily, and all of the bonus
packages gives the product a ton of exposure.
Because they want to win the contest, they will be
sure to promote the product as often as possible –
just so they can with the contest.
Let’s look at how you can create a contest to get
maximum results. First of all, you don’t need to
spend a fortune to run a decent contest. You can
offer a great prize that doesn’t break the bank so
to speak. Here are a few suggestions for running
a successful contest and some proposed prize
offerings.
• Impose a time limit on your contest to build a
sense of urgency. This is an incredible motivator.
These contests can last anywhere from one week
up to a month. By making the contest last for only
a week further generates urgency, as opposed to a
contest that lasts for a month or longer that really
doesn’t give the affiliate much incentive to promote
the product as often. This turns the contest up a
notch and will have your affiliates pushing harder
for sales.
• Offer a prize that has wide-spread appeal. Make
sure the prize is seen as something of value to the
affiliate. For instance, a cash prize may not appeal
to all affiliates in your network, but a prize that
is industry related that the affiliates are already
promoting may be seen as far more valuable.
Let’s say that you are promoting subscriptions
of some sort. Well, make the prize a free yearly
subscription to something related to what they
are promoting and your affiliates will eat it up
because they already have an interest in this. They
understand the value of this type of prize.

• You could always offer the ever popular prizes that include iPods,
TVs and computer stuff. Although they will be a big hit to your
affiliates, it will also cost you more to run the contest. But it may
be money well spent because contests with these types of prizes
will likely pay for itself with new sales generated by your affiliates
who want to win. This may even wake up the lazy affiliates in your
network and put a fire under their butt to get moving and sell! 6
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

• Instead of offering one big prize, offer several prizes and let your
top seller choose first, then the next top seller and so on. You will
generate more excitement and enthusiasm among your affiliates
when you offer more and your affiliates will all feel that they have a
chance to win something.

• Consider using gift certificates as prizes. Make
sure that the gift certificates are for popular stores
and your affiliates will eat this type of promotion
up because not only did they win one but they get
to spend it anyway they want. It gives them total
control over how they use their prize. This is a quick
and easy reward.
• If you don’t want to go with “material” prizes,
consider a recruiting contest where you reward the
affiliate who recruits the most affiliates during a set
time period. The prize can be larger commissions
for the winner or even a second-tier payment
program where they can earn residual income.
will motivate various sections of your affiliate
network.
It doesn’t matter what type of contest you sponsor,
all that matters is that you offer prizes that are
perceived valuable to your affiliates and that the
contest is fair. Make the contest rules clear to all
participants and respond to questions or concerns
fast. When the contest is over, it is important to let
your affiliate network know who won. You may
have to get permission from the winning affiliate
to publish their personal info as some may not
want this made available. The key is to notify all
participants that the prize has been awarded.

• If you don’t have a clue what prize will make the
most impact on your affiliates, it can be helpful
to survey them to get an idea what they would
be interested in. If your responses contain similar
requests, you may want to consider the prize that
was most mentioned.
• It may be best to mention in your promotional
materials to your affiliates that you will sponsor
several contests throughout the year and define
the criteria for each contest. This gives all affiliates
the option of signing up for the contest that most
appeals to them. It also gives them time to plan a
strategy to win the contest they sign up for. This
type of strategy offering various types of contests
A contest can spark interest, excitement and
enthusiasm. Used the right way, contests can be
an excellent motivator. You just need to tune into
what would most likely create the most excitement
and momentum among your affiliate network.
As mentioned, surveying them to see what they
would value as a prize may be the best option for
creating a winning contest.
One important note here, regardless of what type
of contest you sponsor, you must make the rules
clear to all to avoid any misunderstandings. You
need to spell everything out in easy to understand
terms as clearly as possible. Make sure the rules
clearly state the following:

• Who can participate. How the winner will be chosen.

• Who and how the winner will be contacted.
• How they will receive their prize and when they will receive it.
• The start date of the contest. The end date of the contest.
• Specific requirements that must be met to win the contest
7
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES
REWARD FOR PERFORM ANCE
Measure the success of each contest you promote.
You need to know what works and what doesn’t.
This gives you the opportunity to tweak the contest
before you offer it again. Your main goal with the
contest is, of course, to increase sales provided
that you offer a sales based contest. Your goal
would be different if you offer a creative contest.
However, you need to measure the success of any
contest you run in order to ensure that you are
getting the maximum benefit from the contest. For
instance, the prizes offered might not generate the
excitement that you thought it would and you may
have to go back to the drawing board for the next
contest and change the prize offerings.
Y
ou have to constantly manage your
affiliate program and pay attention
through tracking to gain awareness of
affiliate performance. You need to do
everything possible to keep your top
performing affiliates and one way to
do that is to reward them for their efforts.
Tracking is key to the success of your affiliate
program. Tracking alone however will do you no
good if you don’t analyze the data often. This is
important to any reward program. In addition, it
gives you insight into how the affiliate program
• Offer your affiliates various tools to aid in promotions and sales.
It could be something as simple as a monthly newsletter or training
video. This shows your affiliate that you want him/her to be successful.
is working overall and gives you a chance to take
corrective action to get it on the right track and
maybe offer more rewards or giving rewards to
your affiliates more often.
Rewards are another type of incentive that not
only say that you appreciate your affiliates and
their efforts, but that their performance goes
above and beyond your expectations and warrants
recognition.
If you build a relationship with your affiliates
through the use of rewards as incentives and
recognition, your top performers will stay loyal to
you and not move on to other affiliate programs
that they feel will value them more.
Here are a few ways that you can reward your
affiliates for their performance.
• Once you have identified your valuable affiliates,
give them a call instead of sending an email.
This is much more personal and says that you value
them enough to take the time to call them. Discuss
their sales accomplishments and find out if they
have any problems or issues that you can help
with. This shows that you are interested in their
success as well as your own. Consistent high sales
warrant a regular call. Not only will you show your
affiliates that you recognize their efforts but that it
is appreciated.
8
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

• Mention any contests, bonuses or other incentives that will gain

them more income or valuable prizes. Make the offer exclusive to
only the top selling affiliates and let them know that. It will give
them incentive to keep pushing their sales goals because they will
appreciate receiving rewards for certain set milestones.

• Set sales milestones with known rewards when
each is reached, for instance, you could have a
reward program based on various sales amounts.
Let’s say that if your affiliate sells $5,000 of product,
they will be rewarded with a higher commission
percentage and for each sales milestone set after
that ($10,000, $15,000 etc.), the rewards keep
coming in the form of another percentage point in
commission. This will keep your affiliates striving to
reach the next goal and the next goal and so on.
• If some of your affiliates show poor sales
consistently and then turn things around and
become top earners, this definitely calls for a
reward. The turn around could be the result of the
training tools that you provided or a technique that
they picked up somewhere. If you reward them for
this, they will be inspired to keep doing the things
that bring them success. If you don’t recognize this
turn around, then you could lose affiliates who
could have been your best sales people.
and valued as a good affiliate manager.
• Offer a bonus program to your top performers.
Set a sales goal for a particular month and the first
one to reach the goal gets a bonus. The bonus can
be money or material items or anything that you
think your affiliate would appreciate as a reward.
• Create a “rewards for referrals” program and
offer a cash award or an increased commission
percentage for all referrals from your affiliates. This
can work to your advantage as a great motivation
tool and will add additional sales streams, which
add up to more profits for you.
• If your affiliate network is small, you may want to
offer a reward more often for increased sales. This
would motivate your small network to work harder
and increase sales in a short period of time. Your
time period can be weekly, bimonthly or monthly,
whatever you feel comfortable with.

• Give free items to your best affiliates and give
them often as a token of your appreciation.
Nothing says you appreciate them like giving them
a small token such as candy, a free training video, a
free Ebook on a topic of interest to them or some
other small item of interest. Free is good, use it to
reward your affiliates and you will be appreciated
If you offer weekly rewards for let’s say the top
performer of the week, you can offer a lesser
reward than you may want to offer for a monthly
reward. This type of strategy is only recommended
for small affiliate networks because it would be
more timely and difficult to track performance and
analyze data for a large network.

• Make the reward beneficial to the success of your affiliate by offering

rewards that make it easier for them to promote your product. Maybe
you have a piece of software that can help create graphics easily or
one that submits articles to various directories effortlessly. Maybe
you offer to provide hosting for their site or sales page or offer them
templates to create sales pages or other marketing materials.
9
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

AFFILIATES AND FUTURE M OTIVATION

If you make the reward something that is useful sales. This is a sure way to build a solid business and
and helps them promote your product more easily, build a successful team of affiliates.
you will build the level of enthusiasm needed to
ensure that your affiliate will give it his/her all for
you.

A
• For those affiliates in your network who are slow
n Affiliate Manager should always
sellers or are not actively promoting your product,
track the progress of his/her affiliates.
you can offer a reward as an incentive to get them
This data is invaluable to helping
to make a sale. It may be worth it in the long run
manage the affiliate program. You can
to offer them a small incentive for making a sale or
see in this data your top performers
posting links to your site on their blog. It’s a great
and those that don’t do so well. Here
way to get this type of affiliate to take action. It may
is where opportunities to improve come in. It also
be a small step, but any activity on the part of an
sets the stage for you to communicate with your
affiliate to promote your product adds up.
affiliates and put incentives in place to motivate
them for the long-term.
The better and more consistent your reward
program is, the better results form your affiliates
The key to long-term motivation of your affiliates
you can expect. You will get an added benefit with
is continuous communication. It is the only way
a good reward program because your affiliates
to build a solid foundation for your business and
will become your spokes people for your affiliate
build strong, loyal relationships with your affiliates.
program and spread the word about the great
incentives you offer. This can lead to signing up
COMMUNICATION = STRONG RELATIONSHIPS +
more affiliates and getting more sales. Make your
LOYALTY + MORE SALES!
reward program better than the rest and you will
also be rewarded many times over.
One of the most amazing percentages in this
industry is how many affiliates never do anything
The whole point of a rewards program is that you
after signing up – as high as 45% according to some
are using rewards as a tool to strengthen your
networks. It is your job as an Affiliate Manager to
affiliate network, build solid relationships with your
motivate your affiliates - and not just for a little,
affiliates and as an added bonus you will increase
while but well into the future as well.

We already discussed ways to keep your affiliates happy and

motivated, but those ideas will only work for as long as you use
them in your motivation tool box. All the tips and ideas can be and
SHOULD be used long-term to continuously motivate your affiliates,
for as long as you run your affiliate program.
10
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

You have 2 - 4 weeks to keep someone interested in your program.

You can overcome this waning interest with encouragement via an
e-mail, and a phone call. If you motivate them early, you will have
better chances at increasing the lifetime value this affiliate brings
to your network.
You need to give your affiliates reasons to continue your affiliate program.
generating leads and making sales, and you need You need to pay attention to any and all of your
to constantly be thinking of ways to motivate written material such as emails, newsletters,
them. If only 20% succeed, try to find something to training manuals, Ebooks and so on. All have a
motivate and encourage the rest to become active dramatic impact on your success. Your words in this
promoters of your product. material must:
• Excite
Evaluate the numbers from your affiliate network • Persuade (in a subtle way)
and see how you can improve. Always put the • Move to action
needs of your affiliates first and do everything you
can to help them be successful on an ongoing You need to make all your sales material invoke
basis. Stay in frequent contact with them and offer emotion enough to get you affiliates excited to
praise and encouragement whenever possible. promote your products and keep promoting them.
Sales materials believe it or not, are the one key
You must remember that running an affiliate area where most Affiliate Managers miss the mark.
program is hard work, but necessary work if you They tend to write their sales materials that end
want to turn a good profit. Keeping affiliates excited up being too pushy or too soft and either of these
to keep promoting and selling your products can tactics will not move ANYONE to take ANY kind of
be an overwhelming task, but it doesn’t have to be. action!
If you put in a good foundation to start with and
constantly tweak the system, add new products Your sales materials MUST sell YOUR program to
for them to sell, add new incentives, not just an affiliates. If you don’t have affiliates clamoring to
occasional reward, then you will be able to keep promote and sell your products, then you need to
your affiliates motivated for a long time to come. rework your sales materials. It’s as simple as that.

Let’s talk a minute about your copy, your written

Just remember this when trying to motivate your
materials and how they can be used as a great
affiliates for the long haul. Anything that you put
long- term motivator. Words are very powerful and
into your copy must be:
can have a major positive or negative impact on

• Well written
• Truthful Not full of sales hype
• Must be believable
• Must garner trust
• Must breed excitement
• MUST MOTIVATE THEM TO TAKE ACTION
• Must never make promises you can’t keep
11
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

Now let’s take a look at what you can do to improve your sales copy.
Many Affiliate Managers who can’t afford to outsource their sales
copy to a writer, try to do the writing themselves. This can be a bad
thing as there is a method to follow in order to write effective copy.
Here are some things to consider when creating your sales copy.

• Know your target audience.

• Create a strong headline and sub-headlines.
• Use the AIDA method of writing for maximum
results. AIDA stands for:
*Attention (your need to grab the reader ’s attention
with a strong headline and strong copy).
* Interest (You need to pique the reader ’s interest
to keep reading the sales copy).
* Desire (wake up your reader ’s desire to purchase
your product).
* Action (get the reader to take action and buy
your product)
• Create a sense of urgency by making your offer
for a limited time or offer a price reduction for a
limited time.
• Make your offer exclusive by selling a certain
number of products. For instance, say that you will
only sell 200 copies and then the offer will be gone
forever.
• Add a “PS” or two at the end of your sales copy.
Use this as the place to reiterate an important point
or two such as the discounted price of the limited
time. The PS is the second thing that is read after
the headline. People will skim through the copy to
get to the PS, then go back and read the copy, so
make this section count.

• Tell a story (don’t just talk about the product.
Weave it into the copy to explain how you solved a
similar problem (to the readers) with your product).
Make it sound like you are or were in the same boat
as the reader and this motivated you to create this
product and best of all, it solved the problem.
• Use testimonials (no better advertising than
word of mouth or written testimonials).
• Ask the reader to take action (this is where
sales copy fails a lot). Don’t be afraid to say “buy
now” or “get your copy today” etc., over and over
throughout the copy.
The key to effective sales copy is BALANCE! Your
sales pitch needs to subtly lead your reader to the
point of taking action without being too pushy or
pitchy. It’s a balance of tapping into their emotions
and convincing them that they must have your
product. It isn’t always an easy task but it is doable
and with practice it can be achieved.
You can also find a ton of sale page templates that
contain the right mix, and model your sales page
after it. Never copy someone else’s sales copy
without their permission, only use the template if
it is free for you to use.

Remember that people search for products that solve a problem or

make things easier for them. If you keep your copy low-key but to
the point, it will be read, but if your copy sounds like you are trying
to shove this product in their faces, no on will read you copy for long.
12
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES
PROVIDING AFFILIATE TOOLS
Another great long-term motivator is a newsletter.
Send it out on a regular basis and fill it with content
that is meant to excite and motivate your affiliates.
Your newsletters can contain any type of content
relevant to your affiliate network that would be of
interest to them. Think about adding critical data
such as current sales figures and projected sales
figures. Include any new products launches you
may have on the horizon.
Contest news, reward programs and bonus
information will also pique their interest and
further motivate them to continue promoting
and selling your products. Try adding a list of tips
that explain why it is beneficial to promote your
products. Basically you can create a newsworthy
newsletter to gain and keep their attention if you
make it a fun and exciting read.
Seasonal promotions can also go a long way in
keeping your affiliates motivated. You can of course
run a promotion whenever sales are down, but you
can add special promotions tied to specific holidays
as well. Holiday promotions offer an added benefit
that is attractive to affiliates because sales volumes
tend to increase around holidays. They are selling
at peak selling times.
Special promotions like free shipping, a free report
in addition to your product or a free gift of some
sort also add to the excitement of promoting your
I
f you want to have a good strong affiliate sales force behind your
affiliate program, you need to arm them with the very best tools
for success that you can find. They can only do so much on their
own and will rely on you to give them the ammunition in the
form of various tools to help them succeed.
products. If you give your affiliates promotional
tools to help them sell more, chances are they
will. These types of things can only help increase
sales and commissions, and most importantly your
profits.
Maybe it is time to shake things up to get sales
booming. You may want to consider offering a
special discounted price for your product for a
limited time. Not only will you add urgency to
the offer but you will give your affiliates a great
deal more chances to sell the product because
everybody loves a discount.
If you increase affiliate profits and offer a discounted
price on your product, you have just given your
affiliates the motivation they need to really push
your product. In addition, discounted prices on
your products just may land you some new affiliate
recruits.
One final note here. You need to track your
affiliate’s progress and motivate them according
to their performance. For instance, a long-time
affiliate with good sales will need to be motivated
differently than an affiliate just starting out.
Your data will reveal a great many things to you
and you need to pay attention to it if you intend to
keep your affiliates motivated to promote and sell
your products.
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HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

The first rule of affiliate marketing should be to MAKE IT EASY for

them to promote and sell your product. This is a no-brainer in my
book. If you make your affiliate program too complex and difficult,
not only will you not get any sales coming in, you won’t have many
affiliates sticking around for too long. Provide the proper promotion
and sales tools and you will put into action a successful sales force.

PROPER TOOLS = MOTIVATED AFFILITES + SALES + • Give them a list of sites where they can go to get
PROFITS! training information for FREE.

Here are some tools that you should consider
offering your affiliates. Keep in mind that you can
create these yourself or hire a ghostwriter. Either
way, they are much needed and will make your
affiliate’s job so much easier.
• Create PPC ads that they can use to drive traffic.
Create banner ads.
• Have testimonials ready that you can offer them
to include in their sales materials.

• Create specific email ads that can be used by
your affiliates that target your intended audience.
• Teach them how to build a “list” of perspective
clients to sell to.
• Teach them how to create a “website” or “sales
page”. Teach them how to market and advertise
their site or sales page. They need to drive traffic to
their site or sales page in order to sell your product.
• Offer them “back-end” products to sell to earn
even more commission.
• Teach them effective promotional and sales
skills. Save them time and effort wherever possible
by showing them how to get the job done.
• Offer them all types of training materials in audio,
video or print.
• Offer them interviews you may have on your
products. Interview the creator or developer of
your product and offer it to your affiliates as new
content for their site.
• Teach them the value of using signature files.
• Teach them the value of posting on related
forums.
• Teach them to set up an autoresponder series
where they can offer an e-course, a free report or
some other promotional item.
• Teach them to create a blog to promote your
product.
• Teach them how to write a press release and
where to distribute it (you could compile a list of all
free distribution sites).

• Offer a monthly pod cast to download giving them an update

on your product, new products or backend offers coming down the
line, your affiliate program, or any incentives you plan to initiate. This
keeps them current with what’s going on with the affiliate network
and it keeps them connected. They can use this information to tweak
their sales campaigns if need be. 14
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

• Start building excitement for new product releases months in

advance by setting up an autoresponder series of emails that hint
that you are working on the next big release and it will be available
soon. Keep them excited by giving regular updates in each email
on the progress of the release. Spell out the incentives that will go
along with this release. You will have your affiliates antsy to get their
hands on it to begin promoting it.
Basically, you need to provide the best all-around Make sure that you provide the proper training
training that you can if you have a glimmer of that shows them how to set up an effective
hope of building a network of selling machines. promotional campaign, how they can earn more
You need to guide them every step of the way and money as an affiliate through advertising and
make it as easy as possible to have at their finger explain how all the other tools you are providing
tips everything they need to launch a successful work and the benefit they will see from using them.
sales campaign. By teaching them how to be the best affiliates they
can be, you will win their loyalty and respect. You
Now, some affiliates will need more training than will also build a great deal of credibility with them.
others, but if you have one designated place where
they all can go and gain easy access to various Continuously offer new content that they can add
training materials, they will be able to pick and to their site. Send out free copies of your product to
choose what they need to learn most and they can get reviews on it and compile those reviews into
learn at their own pace. content that they can use. Again, it builds credibility,
this time for your product while providing your
You can also suggest various tools in this designated affiliates with useful fresh content they can add to
place that you think will be beneficial for different their site. This is a great promotional tool for the
situations. Your tracking data will indicate what affiliates promoting your product.
type of training is needed for any given affiliate.
You can then direct them to the training area and Show your affiliates how to use various web
help them pick up the knowledge and skills they tools and social networks at their disposal as
need. promotional tools. For instance, you could put
together a tele-seminar and teach them how to use
Keep in mind that many affiliates don’t have a clue Google pay-per-click for advertising, how to find
on how to launch a successful sales campaign. free advertising sites, the best forums to post on
Even if they are excited about your product, if they and so on. Tele-seminars are easy to put together
don’t know what to do to promote it, they may get and you can reach your affiliate sales force quickly
frustrated and give up. and easily.

Train your affiliates about your product. This is extremely important

because if they don’t know everything there’s to know about your
product, how it works and it’s benefits, they will never be able to
promote it effectively.
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HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

Encourage your affiliates to find their own marketing tools and share
them with fellow affiliates. They may stumble upon a tool that can
save time and work better than what you have to offer. They should
also be encouraged to try and write their own copy. If you provide
good training on how to write sales material that is easy to follow,
they may be encouraged to take a stab at it.

If your product is a piece of software, encourage information.

your affiliates to try it and comment on its ease of
use etc. Answer any questions you can to make it
clear how it is suppose to work and the benefits
to customers. You can also garner reviews from
your affiliates who try out the software. They can
testify first-hand their experience using it and how
it helped them solve a problem they were having.
• Set up a Q&A session periodically. You can ask for
their questions or comments via a form on your site
and create an mp3 audio answering their questions.
Then you can have a download button for the mp3
in the training area so they can download and
listen at their leisure.

You don’t have to spend a great deal of time
training your affiliates if the tools that you provide
are easy to understand and concise. As a matter of
fact there are several ways you can offer training
materials to reach your affiliate network easily.
Here are a few ideas.
• Hold a tele-seminar where affiliates can
participate by asking questions or commenting.
• Create an e-course and have your autoresponder
send out one lesson per week.
• Create a membership site for your affiliates and
put all training materials inside for their easy access
and retrieval.
• Set up an email newsletter that offers training
• Provide a way for your affiliates to track their
sales. There is no stronger motivator than to be
able to see the results of your efforts. Make this
information a part of your site that can be accessed
quickly and easily by your affiliates. Make sure
that with each sale your affiliate is automatically
notified. As they see the fruits of their labor grow
with each sale coming in, they will be anxious to
promote your product more aggressively to see
their commissions
rise.
This also gives them an indication if their sales
strategy and the tools that they are using are
working as they should. It shows them what’s
working and what isn’t working for them. It also
allows them to make corrections to their campaigns
quickly to get on track and increase sales.

Let’s face it; the easiest way to promote your products is with an
affiliate program. Having your own personal army of sales people
is sound business. As long as you realize that managing an affiliate
program does take some time and work and requires that you
provide all the tools, tips and tricks necessary to ensure their
success, you can build long-lasting relationships with your affiliate
network that will stay loyal to you for years to come.
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HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR AFFILIATES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A
It takes time, patience and persistence to build a full time Internet Marketer since
strong affiliate network, but if you acquaint them June 2006 (and successful part-
with your product, supply them with the tools for timer before that), I have put several
success and stay consistently in touch with them, successful products online.
you will reap the benefits ten-fold and you will see Here are just a few of my sites that
your bank account grow in the process.. are currently online:

Having strong affiliates is the key to any successful • Affiliate Software Pro
Internet business. Getting affiliates is the easy part
– it’s the keeping them motivated and selling your • PLR Article Pro
products that is the hard part.
• Niche Audio Club
Using the tactics in this guide, you will be on the
right track to creating a strong group of affiliates • Last Chance Profits
that will be sending you sales for a long time to
come. • RSS Feed Generator Pro

To your affiliate success! • 7 Laws Of Buying

Mike Steup
• 9 Dollar PLR

• Reverse Squeeze Page

• PLR Video Tutorials

• Adsense Click Protector

• Adsense Split Tester

• And Many More to Come! I hope this report has

helped you!

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