Affiliate programs (also called Referral Programs or Partnership Programs) are essentially commission-based sales schemes.

Joining an affiliate program is a neat way to make money from your users. But just as you can join someone else's affiliate program, so you can set up your own program and invite webmasters to sign up. Here are my top 3 tips to succeed with your own affiliate program.

1. How to attract affiliates

One of the biggest fears new Affiliate managers have is in finding new affiliates. This fear is a stumbling block that stops many site owners from getting started with affiliate marketing. Interestingly, with a proper marketing strategy, getting affiliates may not be very difficult. Given below are some tips that may help in attracting new affiliates.

Find complimentary sites - "Complementary" sites are sites that sell products or services that compliment your offers. If you sell "gardening tools", a site that sells books on "gardening tips" would be a perfect affiliate.

Find content sites - There are many sites that do not sell any kind of product or service but are mainly content oriented sites. Such sites promote an idea, concept, study or belief. Content sites that are used as a resource for your target market are ideal affiliates.

Finally, there are several sites on the Internet dedicated to listing affiliate Programs. Get your program listed in these directories.

2. Classifying Affiliates for Better Management

The hardest part of administrating an Affiliate Program is deciding what your affiliates need to help make the sale. But, by carefully categorizing your affiliates, you can easily determine what their needs are and how to accurately meet them.

The first step is to pick at least three types of affiliate. Take a look at your affiliates and try to determine one outstanding characteristic that can easily be compared across the board and choose at least three types of the characteristic.

The Second Step is to determine the needs of each type. Each of your affiliate types will have different needs; some of their needs will overlap, but you should find a distinct difference in many of their needs. If you find that all of them have the same needs, go back to step one and re-think your types.

The Third Step involves the process of creating and compiling linking methods for each group of affiliates. Based on the needs you identified in Step two, create and compile linking methods for each type.

3. Safe Guarding Against Spam

Any time you run a program where your affiliates rely on other signups to generate profits, you will eventually have a problem with spam. One of your affiliates will inevitably get it into their head to blitz the Web with unwanted garbage.

When this happens you need to be ready to take action otherwise it will cost you! Your Internet company can boot you off your server and you can find yourself blacklisted. Not good for business. If you get an email from someone claiming they received spam with your URL, then take it as an early warning.

I am not advising you to immediately terminate the affiliate's account, but be sure to contact them to follow up on the complaint. Let your affiliate know you received a complaint and advise them to remove this person from their list.

If you only get one or two complaints, it's probably not spam, the complainants might simply have signed up for an email list and forgotten all about it. You will know when one of your affiliates is spamming, because you will get anywhere from 10 to 100 complaints in the same day all regarding the same URL.

The best thing to do in this case is to immediately terminate or disable the account of the affiliate URL that was spammed.

Running your own affiliate program can become an extrememly profitable venture for your business. You can recruit a HUGE sales force promoting your products for you, and ONLY pay them when you make a sale!

About the Author:
Andy Murray is a marketer and publisher writing informative reports to help grow your online business. Get his latest offering "Get Stinking Rich From Affiliate Programs" for FREE by simply following this link: http://www.zerohourmarketing.com/Affiliate-Marketing-Report.htm

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CORRECTING and REPLACING Internet Retailer's Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites Reveals Online Merchants Prefer Commission Junction to Other Affiliate Marketing Providers
Wednesday May 24, 8:02 pm ET

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 24, 2006–Please replace the release dated May 23, 2006 with the following corrected version due to multiple revisions to the headline and first graph.

The corrected release reads:

INTERNET RETAILER'S TOP 500 GUIDE TO RETAIL WEB SITES REVEALS ONLINE MERCHANTS PREFER COMMISSION JUNCTION TO OTHER AFFILIATE MARKETING PROVIDERS

Commission Junction Powers More Programs Than the Next Two Providers Combined

ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCLK - News), one of the world's largest integrated online marketing companies, today announced that its affiliate marketing division, Commission Junction, is used by more advertisers on Internet Retailer's Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites than the next two affiliate marketing providers combined. In addition, Commission Junction leads in powering programs for 10 of the 13 market categories being used by advertisers to expand reach and increase online revenues. Among Internet Retailer's list of top retail Web sites, Commission Junction powers brand names such as SonyStyle.com, Zappos.com and Real®.

Performance marketing continues to be one of the most cost-effective channels for driving online revenues. As a result, it has been widely adopted by the online retailing industry with 324 of the top 500 retailers running affiliate programs either through networks like Commission Junction or in-house solutions. Commission Junction powers more of these affiliate programs than any other single network provider, and is the preferred provider for the majority of the advertiser categories tracked by Internet Retailer, including Apparel/Accessories, Books/CDs/DVDs, Computers/Electronics, Flowers/Gifts, Hardware/Home Improvements, Health/Beauty, Office Supplies, Specialty/Non-apparel, Sporting Goods and Toys/Hobbies.

"Internet Retailer's independent survey reaffirms Commission Junction's leadership in providing affiliate marketing programs to the top 500 advertisers. Our CJ Marketplace is specifically designed to assist our clients in increasing their online revenue and expand their reach into market segments best suited for their target audiences," said Tom Vadnais, general manager of Commission Junction and Mediaplex. "We are committed to meeting our clients' needs. As the channel grows, Commission Junction will continue to develop, deliver and drive the best affiliate marketing solutions in the industry to support our clients."

About Commission Junction

Commission Junction (www.cj.com) provides advanced performance marketing solutions that help marketers increase online leads and sales. By facilitating strategic relationships between advertisers and publishers, Commission Junction leverages its proven expertise in affiliate marketing and search marketing to drive measurable results for its clients.

About ValueClick, Inc.

ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq:VCLK - News) is one of the world's largest integrated online marketing companies, offering comprehensive and scalable solutions to deliver cost-effective customer acquisition for advertisers and significant revenue for publishers. Through its individual brands, ValueClick's performance-based solutions allow advertisers and publishers to reach their potential through all online marketing channels, including display advertising, affiliate marketing, lead generation, search, e-mail, and comparison shopping. ValueClick brands include Commission Junction, HiSpeed Media, Mediaplex, PriceRunner, ValueClick Media, and Webclients. For more information, please visit www.valueclick.com.

This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, ValueClick's ability to successfully integrate its recently completed Fastclick and Webclients mergers, trends in online advertising spending and estimates of future online performance-based advertising. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements are detailed under "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission made from time to time by ValueClick, including: its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 31, 2006 and amendment to its Annual Report on Form 10-K/A filed on April 21, 2006; its current report on Form 8-K filed on February 27, 2006; recent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and Form 10-Q/A, other current reports on Form 8-K; its amended registration statement on Form S-4, filed on September 27, 2005; and its final prospectus on Form 424B3 filed on September 28, 2005. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the risk that market demand for online advertising, and performance-based online advertising in particular, will not grow as rapidly as predicted. ValueClick undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Contact:
ValueClick, Inc.
For Media:
Ronda Grech, 1.818.575.4511
rgrech@valueclick.com
For Investor Relations:
Gary J. Fuges, 1.818.575.4677

Thanks to LinkConnector, I'm going to be attending the Affiliate Marketers Bootcamp with James Martell, affiliate mentor associated with Commission Juntion.

I'll be talking about my training with James Martell and sharing a few tid bits along the journey. In the meantime, here's a shameless plug for Affiliate Marketers BootCamp complete with affiliate links (thanks for your support).

Affiliate Marketing Mastery Can Be Yours By Attending James Martell's BootCamp

Its been said that the very best way to learn anything is to study with a master.

And the reason is simply this: We learn so much more through personal interaction than from books or tapes.

With that in mind, James Martell has series of BootCamps — intensive, live workshops using animated screenshots of everything James does to be successful on the Net — to "mentor" his students on the essentials of running a first class publishing business to profit from "affiliate programs".

Many know of James' Affiliate Marketers Handbook — 2006, which was first published in May of 2002, but not everyone knows that James originally started teaching his "secrets" to a small group of lucky locals in 2001-2002.

At that time he got out of live trainings because it took precious time and energy away from his growing affiliate business.
And although his "downloadable" training provided everything someone needed to know to make excellent income from a home-based operation on the Net — many over the years have asked if he planned to teach a live class again.

Although he entertained the idea from time to time, he never saw the need, especially since so many were reporting mind boggling incomes themselves when applying the principles taught in the Handbook, his Google Mastery audio report and his twice-a-month audio newsletter, know affectionately as "the buzz".

But the demand was still there from those who felt they either needed a "kick-start" — or some advanced training about how to take their operations to the next level by modeling James more closely and putting a small staff in place as he has done.

And because he now has people trained to do much of the "grunt" work he and his wife Arlene used to do — he has determined that putting together another live class might not only be profitable for himself — but could also be quite profitable in the long run for those attending.

And, of course, James loves to teach so it seemed like a good decision to launch another live training — and one that promises to be "light years" ahead of anything done by either himself or others in this fascinating, emerging industry that offers so much lifestyle and income rewards to those who master the techniques involved.

More can be learned about this BootCamp HERE.

SimpleTuition Debuts Affiliate Program For Organizations Looking To Share Student Loan Comparison Research
Tuesday November 14, 10:27 am ET
Innovative Referral Program Allows Donations to Educational Charitable Organizations

BOSTON, Nov. 14 /PRNewswire/ — SimpleTuition, Inc. (http://www.simpletuition.com), a company dedicated to helping students and parents make sense of education financing choices, today announced the launch of its new Affiliate Partner Program. Available today at http://www.simpletuition.com/friend, the program is open to high school guidance officers, personal financial planners and advisors, as well as professional and student organizations and others that wish to offer objective third-party student loan comparison and research.

As a SimpleTuition Affiliate Partner, organizations that refer parents and students to the SimpleTuition web site for advice will earn a reward for each new visitor that uses the SimpleTuition solution to compare student loans and then clicks through to a lender's loan application site. For non-profit partners and public schools, SimpleTuition is planning to offer the option of donating the referral reward to an educational charity, thereby avoiding any conflicts of interest. A first for referral programs, SimpleTuition is working with leading educational charities, who all share a common vision of helping students and their families attend college, to make this a reality.

"Every year hundreds of thousands of students and parents receive advice and conflicting recommendations from friends, family, co-workers and other advisors about how to best research and manage student loan finances," said Kevin Walker, co-founder and CEO of SimpleTuition. "Since launching SimpleTuition, numerous parents have been telling us how desperate they are for a resource that offers a clear and easy way to understand their student loan options. When they hear of SimpleTuition, they want to tell all their friends. With that in mind, we created the partner program."

According to the recent College Board report, caps for federal student loans are not keeping up with inflation, yet tuition costs keep rising, up 35% from five years ago. With the cost of college at an all-time high — projected to reach $220 billion this year, $86 billion of which will be financed by students or their parents — families nationwide now require multiple loans each year to pay for college. Many are desperate for a clear, concise and easy-to-use resource to help find the best student loan options.

Currently, nearly twenty organizations have already joined the SimpleTuition Affiliate Program. Designed for all types of educational support organizations, partners can choose from three options:

• Partners who want to be able to share student loan information can link directly to SimpleTuition
• Affiliate partners who want to send SimpleTuition applicants (first-time visitors that open a student loan application with one of SimpleTuition's lending partners) receive a referral commission
• Colleges, universities and other organizations can request a customized solution that integrates with their web site

The amount of information on student loans is overwhelming with many different types of loans from various lenders; each with different options, including fees, repayment plans, total loan amount, consolidation options, credit strength scores and FAFSA eligibility in some cases. SimpleTuition allows users to compare multiple financing options from a variety of lenders that can be sorted by monthly payment, total cost of the loan, number of payments, fees and APR. SimpleTuition is not a lender.

About SimpleTuition, Inc.

Founded in 2005, SimpleTuition is dedicated to helping students and parents make sense of education financing choices. Recently featured in FastCompany.com's top 12 innovative websites for Web 2.0, SimpleTuition is the only company to offer an independent and objective solution for researching and comparing parent, private, GradPLUS and federal loans. SimpleTuition is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and is funded by Atlas Venture and IDG Ventures Boston. For more information visit http://www.SimpleTuition.com.

Did you know that 98% of journalists go online daily? Here’s the breakdown of what they’re doing while they’re on the 'Net: 92% article research
81% searching online for stories and information related to piece they’re currently working on
76% to find new sources and/or experts
73% to find press releases

A recent study indicated that over 70% of Americans get their news content online so not only are reporters online, but consumers are, too.

Find as many creative ways to commuicate with your target audiences and get your marketing message out there.