Easiest Yet Most Underused Affiliate Recruitment Method

affiliate program signup linkThe easiest way to recruit affiliates into your program is to place a link to your affiliate program signup page on your website (this should be the very first thing you do as soon as your affiliate program is launched). Simple, and very natural, isn’t it? Yet this could possibly be the most underutilized method of affiliate recruitment! Do you have a link like that on your website? Some merchants do, but you’d be surprised how many do not.

I was looking through lists of merchants yesterday evening, and was literally shocked to see how many of the established brands ignore this easy recruitment tool. Over 60% of websites I’ve looked through (I browsed through about 40 of them) lacked that affiliate program sign up link.

Here’s a brief report of the problems I’ve registered:

Nonexistent Link

Broken Link

  • Real.com – Links to http://www.real.com/www.realnetworks.com/about-us/affiliate.aspx (instead of omitting the www.real.com/ part) which lands every prospective affiliate on a “Sorry, we can’t find the page you were looking for” page.

No Real Info

  • TradeKing – I don’t see a word about payout, cookie life, platform used, or anything else that could attract me as an affiliate.
  • Automotive.com – They just link to their CJ page which contains with no info on commission. Inviting affiliates “along for the ride earning high commissions” is not very motivating without the actual commission info.

Vague Verbiage

  • LowerMyBills.com – Say that they have “two different commission structures”: (i) a “traditional” one “with multiple ways to earn huge commissions”, and (ii) a “geo-targeting solution” with “bounties of up to $70 per lead” and “minimum volume requirements” to be eligible for it. This is just too vague.

If you have an affiliate program, and do not have an easy-to-locate “Affiliate Program” link on your website, you are losing out on valuable partnerships. Fix this problem today!

9 thoughts on “Easiest Yet Most Underused Affiliate Recruitment Method”

  1. I always thought it was interesting merchants don’t post links to their affiliate programs; it almost seems they are trying to hide the program for some reason, maybe a perceived stigma attached to it.

    Another annoying thing is when companies don’t update the affiliate manager information. I don’t know how many times I emailed a manager for information on his program and got no response then discovered the manager was replaced long ago.

    BTW, I had no idea AllState had an affiliate program. Thanks for the tip.

  2. Darren, thank you for your comment. You didn’t know about Allstate’s program partially because there is no way to tell whether they do or not…

    Yes, listing the current affiliate manager contact info is a must. Your comment reminded me of my experience with AJ Madison. Had it not been for my blog, they would’ve never written back.

  3. I started an affiliate program few days ago.

    The interface of the site and the program itself was designed according to Geno’s tips.

    The program is integrated with of the eCommerce platform, very soon another platform will be added. I sent a welcome email to affiliates who signed for our partner program. Is there anything more I should do ? How can I recruit more affiliates? Where?

  4. Piotr, I personally do not believe in “the more platforms, the better” approach. So, one or two is more than enough as long as they’re reputable (respected among affiliates), and you’re doing your aggressive recruitment.

  5. Geno, thank you very much for your tips. Since the program launch about 2.5 affiliates a day sign for our partner program. I though that it would be more … Following your tips I recruite new affiliates thanks to different forms, Twitter , etc. I also downloaded SPIDER which is free at the moment and I’m gonna use it potential soon. But I wonder if 2.5 affiliates a day (18 during a week) is OK or not?

  6. Piotr, sorry for not getting back with you on this earlier. I’ve been on vacation.

    The average daily number of affiliates you’d sign up would wholly depend on how much effort you’re putting into this. 2.5 affiliates a day doesn’t sound like a lot, but again, much depends on how much time and money you’re investing into this. Some of the more powerful tools for recruitment are not free. Start experimenting with something like IBP’s link building tool or LinkCapture.

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