A business thrives on two essential ingredients: quality product/service and the right kind of exposure or marketing. An online business is no different. To address the need for business exposure affiliate marketing has evolved over the years. Unfortunately, getting the right caliber of marketing personnel or affiliates to take a product/service to the public, where it is needed, is often a daunting challenge to many business owners. It is even more so as affiliate marketers come ten a penny, and many take the initiative by approaching the business owner(s) offering to market their products.

Daunting as recruiting the right affiliates may be, it still has to be done. Many business owners have recorded successes in attracting the right kind of affiliates by adopting five key strategies. What are these strategies?

It must be said right away that waiting and hoping that affiliates will approach you to be signed on to your business is the worst kind of strategy for your business growth. For one thing, you have ceded the initiative to the affiliate and by extension the ability to dictate the terms of engagement. When this happens the possibility of hiring second rate affiliates becomes high, with the attendant risk of your product not getting adequate and or effective publicity or exposure.

Strategy 1

Design a marketing plan: This may strike many as a no brainer but you'll be surprised at the number of online businesses that lack a basic marketing plan. Many online businesses simply play it by the ear; they hear that one marketing strategy works wonders and they hurriedly key into it without fully understanding why or how it works and when the desired 'wonder' is not achieved fast enough they immediately switch to the next hype. A marketing plan will basically show your target market, where that can be found, and how to approach it. A marketing plan shows you the kind of affiliates you need for your business. For instance, a sporting product is better received if it is marketed to the sporting crowd on sports sites, chat rooms, blogs, etc. The plan must equally include regular reviews to assess its level of success and to trim or strengthen it as required.

Strategy 2

Compile a list of affiliates in your industry and related industries and then speak directly to them about your product/service and your need for affiliates. To sweeten the pot, you must clearly state what commission you are willing to give and other benefits if they sign up with you. It would certainly help if you can give a commission to the affiliates above the industry average.

Strategy 3

Become very visible; be everywhere online. There are a number of ways to achieve online visibility: Write and post interesting articles on your product/service on article directories like EzineArticles; Buzzle, Article Dashboard, Goarticles, Articlesalley, etc. Write quality and objective product reviews; register with social network sites like MySpace, Tagged, Facebook, Twitter, etc and make lots of friends; join an affiliate directory; join a forum and instigate discussions on your product/service; maintain a blog, where you constantly highlight your product. Generally make it difficult for web users, including affiliates, to ignore you or your product. Once you are well known, affiliate marketers would be willing to join your affiliate programme and make money while expending little effort.

Strategy 4

Professionalism is essential. Professionalism in terms of your lead time in responding to queries, handling orders, et cetera. With thousands of online businesses to promote, no affiliate marketer wants to be trapped in a business that slows it down. It tells an affiliate you are not serious if he has to wait days to get clarifications on your product/service.

Strategy 5

Get referrals. Encourage your affiliates to bring in others and make sure they are rewarded when they do. Explore your list, your online friends, and others for suggestions on suitable affiliates.

Recruiting the right mix of affiliates is as important to your business growth as your product/service and it requires quality time devoted to drawing out an effective recruitment strategy.

My name is Jeff Bryce and I am a full-time Internet Marketer and IM coach. It's my goal to post relevant, useful articles to help you in your journey as you grow your online business.

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Jeff Bryce

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