The actual book will show you examples of three real-life companies that have implemented an Affiliate Program - one to increase visitors, one to increase leads and another to increase subscriptions.

Excerpt #2
This excerpt talks about linking methods and entry pages. It will give you lots of great ideas for setting up linking methods and entry pages for your Affiliates.

Linking Methods and Entry Pages

Once your Affiliates read through your promotional page, accept the terms of your Affiliate Agreement and sign up for your Affiliate Program - they are going to need links to use in promoting your site. This means that you are going to need to get together some ideas for linking methods, and an idea of where those linking methods will lead visitors.

Linking Methods
If you are planning on running a simple Affiliate Program, you can offer your Affiliates a couple of banners. On the other hand, if you are planning on running a sophisticated program, you can offer your Affiliates various types of marketing material to help increase their chances to make a sale.

Giving your Affiliates a number of linking methods is a great way to entice them to actively promote your site in several venues. If you only give them banners, they'll only think to advertise by placing that banner on their site. But, if you give them banners and text ads and articles, they may think to place the banner on their site, a text ad in outgoing mailings to their customers and an article in their e-zine.

Entry Pages
Once you've determined what linking methods you want offer your Affiliates, you need to determine where those linking methods are going to lead visitors. In other words, what page on your site would you like visitors to enter on? This page is fittingly called an "entry page".

Include on Your Entry Pages
Your entry page is the first page that visitors will see when they enter your site. So, you'll want to keep them clean, impressive and action-oriented. Each entry page you create should list one to three actions that your visitors can take. For example:

• Order Now
• Contact Us
• Fill out this form
• Subscribe to our newsletter
• Call Now
• Email Us
• Lean More
• Take the tour
• Download the demo
• Request Product Information
• Request FREE Report
• Members Only - Click Here
  

Multiple Entry Pages
Allowing Affiliates to link to specific entry pages is also a great linking technique. If you've written an article or created an image for a specific product, service, sale or feature - be sure the link points directly to that section of your site.

Using different entry pages for different purposes can help you close more sales for your Affiliates by minimizing the amount of clicks it takes to show visitors what they came for. Instead of always linking to your index page, consider linking a "Buy Now" banner to your order page; an article about "Features you'll find nowhere else" to your features page; or an email ad about your "Service Guarantee" directly to your guarantee policy page.

The actual book will give you examples of linking methods and excellent resources for banner design, article writing and copy writing.

Excerpt #3
This excerpt talks about Affiliate communication and how it will help you turn your Affiliate Program into a true revenue-generating machine.

Affiliate Communication
One of the biggest mistakes that many merchants make when starting an Affiliate Program is that they forget to create a plan for Affiliate Communication and Motivation. Affiliates are an important part of your business ・and just as you would not neglect to speak to your employees and co-workers 幌ou shouldn稚 neglect to communicate with your Affiliates.

Your Affiliate Communication plan should begin with the exact second that a new Affiliate signs up for your program. It should last throughout the time that an Affiliate remains a member of your program.

Thank you page
Affiliate Communication starts at your 典hank you・page. This is the page that an Affiliate sees once they fill out your sign up form and click on 都ubmit・ Most tracking and management solutions have a standard 鍍hank you・page that gives the Affiliate their ID number and banner/linking code.

But, don稚 let that standard 典hank You・page serve as your first communication with your new Affiliate. Customize it to give them a true welcome to your unique program and the unique opportunity you池e giving them by allowing them to become a part of your business. No standard 典hank You・page can do that for you・/font>

Thank You Email
You should also send your new Affiliates a 典hank You・email that covers the same information you touched on with the 典hank You ・page. Like the 典hank You・page, the 典hank You・email will most likely be a standard feature of your Affiliate Tracking and Management Solution. And, just like the 典hank You・ page, it needs a little customization to make it truly fit your unique program・/font>

Action-Generated Email Messages
Your Affiliate Tracking and Management Solution may come with action-generated emails. These are messages that are sent to your Affiliates when they refer a confirmed sale, when they refer a second tier Affiliate or when they earn a second tier commission.

These email messages keep your Affiliates motivated and excited about promoting your products and services. They don稚 have to wait until the end of each month to see results ・they値l see the fruit of their labor as it unfolds sale by sale and Affiliate by Affiliate.

If your Tracking and Management Solution offers action-oriented emails ・ you池e in luck. You won稚 have to do much except edit the letters to include your unique, motivating messages. If your solution doesn稚 offer this option, you値l need to setup a few letters and determine a schedule for sending them・br>

Activation Rates
Before we go any further, it痴 time we covered an important topic ・鄭ctivation Rates・ Activation Rates refer the number, ratio or percentage of Affiliates that actually place your link. Believe it or not ・people will come to your site, sign up for your program and never place your link on their site, in an email message or anywhere else.

Why?

Well, there are countless reasons. Maybe they sign up one day and forget the next day. Maybe they accidentally delete your 典hank You・ email and don稚 bother contacting you or signing up again. Maybe they lost interest.

No matter what reason each lost Affiliate has for not posting your link, poor Activation Rates can be blamed on one thing: poor Affiliate communication. If Affiliates are properly followed up with, they won稚 forget about your program, they値l have their account information in front of them at all times and they won稚 loose interest. So, it痴 up to you to follow-up with them. Keeping them in touch with you and what痴 going on with your company will get them and keep them active.

That痴 what the rest of this chapter is about.
Remember: Affiliate Marketing can be as easy as you want it to be or as powerful as you want it to be.

If you want to run a simple, easy program ・that痴 fine. You don稚 need to customize your 典hank You・page and email and you don稚 have to follow-up with your Affiliates. But, if you want to run a highly successful, revenue-generating powerhouse of an Affiliate Program ・communicating with your Affiliates on an ongoing basis is the key. It will not only increase your Activation Rate, but your traffic, leads, sales and more.