The Ultimate Marketing Idea - Start Your Own Affiliate Program

If you are looking to get hundreds or even thousands of affiliates to promote your products on their websites or blogs for you, the work is already cut out as there are plenty of options to choose from. There are networks such as LinkShare, Commission Junction and Performics whom you can hire to do the job. These companies would look after handling your money as well as the tracking and they also provide you with a generous percentage. To get your affiliate program started, these companies would probably charge you a pretty reasonable amount often reaching a few thousand dollars. Other than these big and hugely popular companies, you can also choose from a number of smaller yet reliable affiliate networks as well.

Compared to the ones mentioned above, these smaller companies charge significantly lower fees. However, you can also hire a person who would be able to place their affiliate tracking software onto your server. You can also purchase a CGI tracking script or if you are knowledgeable about such things, you can also write your own script and start your own affiliate program. Otherwise, you could just use one of the many web-based tracking systems that charge you with a fee to be paid monthly.

One of the things that you should ask a potential affiliate network that you want to handle your account is who has control and who owns all the email addresses of every affiliate, Basically, if these are your affiliates then you would want to have control over these valuable names. Another thing to remember is to research more about the networks you are potentially eyeing as the "one". How can you do this? It's simple. You sign up as an affiliate first before signing up as a merchant that way you can get a feel for yourself the service your affiliates would be getting.

Below is a list of just some of the options that you have whether you decide to go through a network or start your own affiliate program, the following websites would surely help you out.

Commission Junction is one of the largest affiliate networks online right now. In the website, you would be able to quickly and in a very simple way start a pay-per-lead or a pay-per-sale program. You would also benefit greatly from the fact that this is a rather popular affiliate network. Perhaps the only set back here is the fact that promoting your affiliate program is a job that you still have to do yourself as well as that a large number of affiliates who join a major affiliate network would most likely be a newcomer and is pretty much clueless about how to sell over the internet. If you want to do it yourself, without having to go through any networks, then you might want to try Leadhound.

Within a couple of hours you can create and start up your very own affiliate tracking software online and have it up and running the same day. If you are a PayPal user then this one's for you as it is designed with the PayPal user in mind. It even comes configured to enable you to pay your affiliates through the "mass pay" feature offered by PayPal saving you loads of time and eliminates the hassle of paying the by check. Leadhound charges a monthly fee. So, there you have it. Just some options available to you and in the event that you wish to learn more, a simple internet research would lead you to many other affiliate networks like the ones mentioned above.