Running An Affiliate Program: Your Payment Options
If you sell a product or a service online, an affiliate program can do wonders for your profits. A strong affiliate program enables you to rely on outside help. This outside help comes from website owners who display links and banners for your online store, the product, or service you sell. Each time a sale is made, you both make money. It doesn’t get much better than that.
If you are just now considering an affiliate program, you are likely to have many questions. One of those questions is about payment. What should you pay your affiliates and how should you pay them? In short, the decision is yours to make, but continue reading on for a few helpful suggestions.
You can add incentives for your existing customers to recruit new customers. As a small Internet business, offering affiliate deals is a great way to increase your traffic and profile. Just make sure you're always on the up-and-up with your affiliates. Do what you promise and treat the people working for you as if they're your real employees.
In terms of how much you pay, you have two options. Those are percentage based and flat rate commissions. If you are selling a single product or service that sells for the same price all the time, it is best to have a flat rate commission. It is easy to know how much you owe your affiliates and it is easy for them to determine the amount owed. If you have a wide range of products, like if you operate an online store, you may find the best luck with percentage based commission. If you sell a wide range of high and low priced products, opt for commission based on category, such as a different rate for toys, clothes, and electronics.
As for how you can pay, you may not have a choice. If you use a third-party affiliate hosting company, they may have rules and restrictions. For example, you may be required to pay the company and they in turn pay your affiliates. More often than not, this gets complicated. If you wish to use a third-party affiliate hosting website, review the payment options and restrictions of all hosting companies before making your choice.
You should always try to pick a market or niche that you want to focus on and have the website and links correspond. Your site's content should have something to do with the links on your site because that will increase the likelihood that somebody is actually going to click on the links.
If you have the freedom to pay your affiliates anyway that you see fit, you may opt for checks. Business checks are ideal, as everyone is provided with a record. Your affiliates will need their paycheck stubs to calculate their income for tax purposes. From the standpoint of an affiliate, there are no fees for cashing a check at a local bank.
If you like the safety and security of business checks, but worry about the extra expenses of paper, consider direct deposit. All banks in the United States allow for direct deposit. If you are just getting started, know that some individuals have reservations about disclosing their bank account information. Make it possible for new affiliates to opt for checks first. Once they know you and your moneymaking program are legitimate, they may be more comfortable providing you with this information.
Understand that you are going to have to put time into your site. A lot of people are dazzled by the idea of making a thousand dollars a week without doing any work. That is possible, but not until you have built your site and reputation up to the point where you don't have to do much. Getting to that level requires significant time investments and if you aren't ready to put in the time, this may not be the business for you.
Your next option is to opt for PayPal. PayPal is preferred by most affiliates and home based workers. It is safe, quick, easy, and convenient. You may be charged fees to send bulk payments via PayPal. With that said, if you want to reduce the wasted paper, PayPal is one of your best options. Both you and your affiliates are provided with detailed records, which are easy to print for tax purposes.
Finally, you need to decide how often you want to pay affiliates. You do not want to cut checks for only $1 or $2. For that reason, decide on a minimum payout. With that said, look at it from the standpoint of your affiliates. It can take beginners months to earn $100. It may be best to opt for a low, but easy to process payment, like $10. You can always give your affiliates the option to set their own minimum payout, starting at $10.
The most important part of affiliate marketing is repeated business, so ensure that the people who visit your website want to come back. Provide them with quality content that they can't find anywhere else, and remind them that you're there through social media and email newsletters. Give them a good reason to bookmark you!
In conclusion, you have many options when it comes to paying your affiliates. The good news is that you are in control. You determine how much your affiliates make, when they get paid, and how they get paid. When making these decisions, ensure you make money but also that your affiliates do too, as that is what keeps them coming back.
