Starting an Affiliate Program: 7 Things You Need to Know (Updated)

Posted on the 08 February 2022 by Nirmalkumar1997

Do you want to know more about starting an affiliate program? This article will show you everything you need to know before starting an affiliate program.

If you are a WordPress blogger who likes to make money online, probably you know about affiliate programs. By promoting a service a tool through a unique affiliate link, that link owner can get a commission (when the lead purchases the product).

On the other hand, if you represent a brand and need to increase the reach/viewability, you should start your own affiliate program and recruit affiliates.

Here, we will show you what you need to know before starting an affiliate program.

Why and When Do You Need an Affiliate Program Why and When Do You Need an Affiliate Program

Once you’ve launched a product, you have to spend time marketing it. Usually, businesses will use the power of social media, Google Ads, email newsletters for promoting the specific product.

But when it comes to an end, these methods can be limited.

If you need to reach more audiences, you have to start an affiliate program and develop promotion tactics.

If your product is good, more people will tend to promote it. Instead of linking to the website directly, they prefer joining the affiliate program and promoting the affiliate links. So when a visitor makes a purchase, the website admin will get a commission.

To take your marketing strategy to the next level, you have to start an affiliate program. People will write dedicated product reviews, list the product in listicles, and so on.

The best part is, you do not need to spend a single penny on affiliates till they make a sale. Then, when they generate a sale, you can credit the commission to their affiliate account. And, of course, you will have total control over the affiliate commission.

Starting an Affiliate Program: What to Check? Starting an Affiliate Program: What to Check?

Before launching your affiliate program, you have to do some research. This section will show you some tips you need to know before launching the affiliate program.

1) Get Targeted Affiliates 1) Get Targeted Affiliates

When you recruit new affiliates, be selective instead of approving every application. Unfortunately, a ton of affiliate program managers are making this mistake. If you enable the auto-approval system in the affiliate program, non-targeted spam applications would be automatically added to your affiliate list.

That’s not good.

Now, let’s see who is targeted affiliates.

Let’s say that you are running a WordPress plugin business. And you have launched an affiliate program, enabled the auto-approval option. Everyone can join your affiliate program through the signup page.

When someone with a fashion blog joins your affiliate program, you have a brand new affiliate partner. But you can’t expect any conversion from him. WordPress niche and fashion niche aren’t even near.

So, accepting someone with a fashion blog as an affiliate won’t be a good option.

What you can do is, disable the auto-approval system, go through each affiliate application and filter the potential ones. Of course, it might take some time to filter the best affiliate partners, but this is quite helpful instead of having non-targeted ones.

So, get targeted visitors.

2) Design Creatives 2) Design Creatives

Before launching your affiliate program to the public, you have to design some creatives. For example, you can use software like Adobe Illustrator for creating custom banners. On the other hand, if you are not good enough with the design stuff, you can get a graphics designer from any freelancing website like Fiverr.

You need to create banners in different dimensions. Once you are done with it, you are good to go.

Some people would love to promote the affiliate links through banners. For example, banners are most preferred for adding an affiliate link to any widget area than text links.

So, keep that in mind.

3) Decide Commission Structure 3) Decide Commission Structure

You have to decide the affiliate commission structure before launching it. You can do a percentage-based commission or a flat commission for each sale. You can configure it from the affiliate plugin’s settings.

You can pick one structure according to your preference.

For example, let’s say that you have selected the percentage-based commission and configured 20% as the affiliate commission.

And the price of your product is $100.

When your affiliates make a sale through their unique affiliate link, you will be paying 20% of the total amount. In this case, the affiliate commission would be $20/conversion.

On the other hand, if you choose the flat commission model, you will be depositing a specific amount to the affiliate’s wallet when they make a sale.

4) Invest in Marketing 4) Invest in Marketing

Once you’ve launched an affiliate program, you’ve to promote it. That’s how you can get affiliate partners. When it comes to marketing, you can use social media, newsletters for promoting your affiliate program.

You can tell them about your new affiliate program if you’ve already got clients and encourage them to become an affiliate. You can also write a dedicated blog post mentioning your affiliate program, commission structure, and why it is good to join.

Add the article as a press release, and you are good to go.

5) Choose Payment Gateway 5) Choose Payment Gateway

How you are going to pay the affiliates?

PayPal and Payoneer are the two best options for processing affiliate payments. However, before proceeding with the affiliate program launch, you must choose the payment method. Each platform comes with a different fee structure and features.

So before choosing a payment gateway, look at the features.

6) Configure Commission Lock Period 6) Configure Commission Lock Period

Most online tools come with a moneyback guarantee. So, you have to mention a commission lock-in period accordingly.

For example, if you have 14 days moneyback guarantee, you can have 15 days commission lock-in period.

This will help your business prevent loss.

7) Choose a Minimum Payment Threshold 7) Choose a Minimum Payment Threshold

Finally, you have to choose the minimum payment threshold.

If you use PayPal to complete the affiliate payments, you know that PayPal got fees for processing payments. So, sending the affiliate payment every week is not preferred. Instead, you can mention a minimum affiliate payment threshold.

Most people will use $50 as the minimum threshold.

You can configure the minimum threshold from the settings page of your affiliate plugin.

Requirements to Start an Affilate Program Requirements to Start an Affilate Program

If you are ready to start your affiliate program for the first time, let’s see the tool you have to use.

You can use a dedicated WordPress affiliate plugin or a dedicated service like ShareASale, Impact, CJ to start an affiliate program.

But if you need to manage everything from the WordPress dashboard and need a simple solution, you have to check out Solid Affiliate.

Solid Affiliate Solid Affiliate

Solid Affiliate is one of the best affiliate plugins for WordPress. It comes with so many unique features and integrations a typical affiliate marketing manager needs. This section will show you what Solid Affiliate has to offer and why it is the best in the market.

In a quick summary, the features available inside the plugin are:

  • PayPal integration
  • Mailchimp integration
  • Easy customization
  • Refund protection
  • Shortcode ready
  • Affiliate cookie life
  • Manual approval
  • Customizable emails
  • Automated payout
  • Real-time tracking

Now, let’s take a deep look into the features.

1) Shortcode Ready 1) Shortcode Ready

Once you have modified the affiliate program, you must embed it inside the pages. For example, you can use shortcodes to embed the login page and affiliate registration page.

Using shortcodes in WordPress pages is simple. You can perform copy-paste, and you are good to go. For example, when using the Gutenberg editor, use the shortcode block, paste the shortcode, update the page.

2) Easy Setup 2) Easy Setup

Setting up an affiliate program with the Solid Affiliate plugin would be a cakewalk. However, you do not need to edit any theme files or anything for customizing the affiliate program.

The plugin comes with a dedicated panel for modifying the program.

3) Refund Protection 3) Refund Protection

Setting up a refund period in the Solid Affiliate plugin can be very handy.

If you haven’t used this feature, every affiliate payment credited to your partner’s account will be paid automatically on a specific date. Well, if your client just cancelled the subscription and asked for a refund, the affiliate payment paid can be not worthy.

That’s why we (and almost everyone) recommend using the refund protection option.

You can set up a grace period from the plugin’s settings and update the settings. Now, you are good to go.

4) Affiliate Cookie Duration 4) Affiliate Cookie Duration

Setting up a cookie duration period from the plugin’s settings is simple.

This is the duration an affiliate will get a commission after the visitor clicks on his link. So, for example, let’s say that we have configured the cookie duration as 30 days.

When your affiliate partner promotes the link, he gets 30 days to commission after someone clicks on it.

5) Real-time Tracking 5) Real-time Tracking

To track the affiliate’s performance, you can use the real-time feature.

Your affiliates will love to get real-time tracking. This way, they do not need to wait a day or so to view the stats.

6) Customizable Emails 6) Customizable Emails

You can let your affiliate partners know when they make a sale through email. These emails are 100% customizable. If you need to add unique content regarding the promotion, that’s possible.

And note that editing the email template will reflect site-wide. So, the updated new sale email will be sent to every partner when they make a conversion.

Alright. Now you know what the plugin can do for affiliate marketers and managers. Next, let’s see the plugin’s pricing.

Solid Affiliate Pricing Solid Affiliate Pricing

Using our link, you can get a lifetime license for an affordable price.

This is a limited-time offer, and you have to get it as soon as possible.

How to Make Affiliates Happy? How to Make Affiliates Happy?

Having energetic and loyal affiliate partners can be helpful. Check out this section if you need to make your affiliates happy and stick with you forever. In addition, we will show you some bonus tips to run your affiliate campaigns more efficiently.

Come Up With Custom Coupon Codes Come Up With Custom Coupon Codes

Promoting coupon codes are a good marketing strategy.

When someone needs to purchase a product online, probably they will look for coupon codes/discount codes. So, prompting coupon codes can get affiliates a commission boost and conversion increase.

If you can give them custom coupon codes for promotion, they will be happy to promote it. For example, you can generate a completely new coupon code instead of providing a default coupon code that matches the affiliates’ website name.

This will boost the affiliate’s performance and trust.

Increase Commission Rates Increase Commission Rates

Offering a higher commission rate can help you get more affiliates. Also, it will keep the old affiliates engaged, and they will never leave you behind.

You can mention a flat commission or a commission percentage.

Both work well. There are so many affiliates programs are use flat commission and percentage-based commission.

A higher commission rate will get you more conversion rates. On top of that, you can also increase the commission rates of your top-performing affiliates.

Come Up with Bonuses Come Up with Bonuses

When you release a new feature or add-on, you have to spread the word.

That’s why bonuses can be an excellent option to promote. You can send your top-performing affiliates an email and tell them about the new feature, what it does and how it will help the audience. On top of that, you can offer some affiliate funds for the promotion.

You can deposit the money inside the affiliate account or directly through any payment processing gateway like PayPal. You can send this offer to your top-performing affiliates or entire partners. That’s totally up to your budget.

This won’t be a good choice when the budget is your primary concern.

Prepare Promotional Posts for Them Prepare Promotional Posts for Them

For your top-performing affiliates, you can create dedicated content that will promote your brand in a standard manner. On the other hand, giving your own content to your affiliates might be an excellent option to go deep and promote it.

The top-performing affiliates will be already generating many visitors to their promotional articles. So, once you have created a dedicated piece, give it to them and engage with the affiliates.

Conclusion Conclusion

Starting an affiliate program will help you get more sales and conversions. Today, many tools and networks are available to host an affiliate program. For example, you can start an affiliate program using the Solid Affiliates plugin with minimal effort.

They have got multiple features and integration with WooCommerce. So, tracking the results would be simple as that.

We hope you have found this article helpful and enjoyed the read. Please consider sharing this post with your friends and fellow bloggers on social media if you did. You can also check out our blog archive for more articles.