How to Create an Affiliate Program – A Complete Circle of Giving and Receiving

I like to describe affiliate programs as a complete circle of giving and receiving. It’s a win-win situation, providing a way for the individual and the business owner to exchange connections—and sales! Affiliates receive a commission for their promotion and business owners gain leads and/or sales that otherwise might not have.

Most of us could use a little extra cash right now – especially during the holidays. By becoming an affiliate you can earn a passive income just by doing what you do naturally—sharing what you know and love with those you know. Women make great affiliates because we’re loyal customers who love to share what’s working for us.

But, how do you manage the other side of the affiliate partnership? How can you put together a strong affiliate program? I think this is something many women entrepreneurs need to do as a way to reach a much larger audience. So I want to share some tips on building an effective affiliate program for your products and services.

It starts with a generous mindset.

When I first launched my company, I was paying a 10% affiliate fee. Then I thought, “If I say that I care about my affiliates and need their support to help me spread the word about {my company}, who’s going to do that for 10%? Why would they waste their time?”

Then I decided to adjust it to 50% and after making that decision everything shifted for me internally. The first question my husband asked me was, “How can you afford to pay them 50%? That’s so much.” I said, “You’re looking at it from the wrong perspective. I wouldn’t have even known about Mary if Susie hadn’t sent Mary to me. So I’m thrilled to pay Susie a generous percentage because she just brought somebody new into my life who I never knew about.”

It’s all about your mindset and how you look at the affiliate. When you really look at them with this great appreciation, you think, “Thank you so much for expanding the network of people in my world who are learning about my products” you feel that gratitude as you sit down write them their checks or send them a PayPal payment.

When you feel generous and appreciative this shifts the entire way you promote your affiliate program. When I review my old emails when I was paying 10%, my emails didn’t have a good energy. When I shifted it to 50%, the voice with which I wrote changed. All of a sudden I thought, “Wow! I can’t wait for you to promote this product. I’m going to pay you 50% on this product.” That’s a lot of money. Honestly, it was so much fun for me to write affiliate emails. Now I’m not saying 50% is the magic number, but I am suggesting that you choose a percentage – or even a flat fee – that feels good and generous to you. This will really enhance your ability to communicate with passion.

Make it easy for your affiliates to do their job.

If you want your affiliates to do a good job for you, you want to make it as easy for them as possible. I am an affiliate for many people whose products and services I love and I really appreciate those who make it easy. Many send me pre-written tweets, email blasts, and other content that is properly embedded with my affiliate code so all I have to do is tweak it to be in my voice, copy, paste and drop it in.

In contrast, there are people for whom I’ve become an affiliate (because I love what they’re doing) but they don’t make it that easy for me. I have to go digging through their back end, hunting for their banners, and seeing what I can dig up about their copy to do it. Realistically, few people will invest that time. Regardless if they love what you do, they’re busy and if it’s not easy, or even worse if it’s confusing, chances are they won’t do it.

So this means that you have to spend the time creating the content for your affiliates. The beauty of having an ongoing service or product is once you’ve set this up you can create autoresponders (automated emails) to go out on a predetermined schedule.

When you sit down to write to the person who has signed up to be your affiliate think about how you can serve them. Ask yourself, “How can I give this person every tool I can so they can do the best job for me and so I can pay them the most amount of money?” This will help your copy to flow.