Using an affiliate program to grow your Internet business

Abby Port of the Red Koala Canvas Co. has had the great benefit of ongoing mentorship from her primary Seeds For Success mentor, Christina Blenk. Christina is the CEO of WomanOwned.com, a wealth of information for entrepreneurs at all levels. Here is a recap of Christina's recent advice to Abby's questions about marketing her web site and setting up an affiliate program :


An affiliate program (using one website to drive traffic to another) is a great idea as long as your expenses to manage it are low.

The amount of payout offered is really up to each business owner. In Abby's case, since the margins could vary, I would suggest doing a straight dollar amount (such as $25 per sale), rather than a percentage of each transaction. The percentage might be better for the affiliate, but it is an unknown, and adds up to more variables to manage to determine the commission checks. Abby will want to look at the cheapest order possible and determine what she can spare to the affiliate on that size order. She will then have the amount to set for all orders. The larger orders provide better margins and the smaller orders are still tolerable (profit).

Some affiliate programs payout for "leads" (and even "clicks"), but I don't recommend either one of these. Abby should avoid paying out money without having made some on a sale. She'll want to use the CPA (cost per action) model so the affiliate makes money ($20 - $25 for example) when their link or banner leads to a sale on her site. She will, of course, need to put tracking code in her Yahoo Store to make sure that sales are tracked correctly and then pay out checks when affiliates' commissions reach a certain point (like $50).

Abby plans to check out the Yahoo! Search Marketing Affiliate Program right away. We look forward to a progress report! For more on internet marketing, we'll discuss SEO (search engine optimization) marketing in a future post.