20 Effective Tools for Affiliate Recruitment

Appreciating the fact that your time is money, and you’re not looking for a 3,000 words article (but rather a concise and ready-to-implement list of tools), let me skip the introduction, and jump right to the list (don’t read it as a ranking of any kind; just a list of tools every one of which may be used effectively if approached wisely):

  1. Facebook — Does your affiliate program even have a FB page yet?
  2. Twitter — Are you tweeting like these companies do?
  3. LinkedIn — Participate in Groups, answer questions, get your name out there.
  4. Snail mail — Yes! Everyone’s flooded with emails. Mail will get their attention.
  5. Link on site — Does your main website have an “Affiliate Program” link, or are you making these mistakes?
  6. Affiliate program page — Optimize it to rank well for the keywords of importance [find some content ideas here].
  7. Affiliate program blog — 22% of affiliates find out about affiliate programs through these.
  8. Guest blogging — Get your name out there!
  9. Paid search — Tried running closely-targeted PPC campaigns to find affiliates?
  10. Customer database — Satisfied customers make great marketers!
  11. Link-building tools — A few robust ones were discussed here. And remember to follow-up.
  12. Affiliate directories — Nope, they’re not dead! Here’s a list to start with.
  13. Second-tier affiliates — Thought of paying a bounty per every new affiliate they bring in?
  14. Forums — Do you have presence on major affiliate marketing forums?
  15. Conferences — Hang out where affiliates hang out (here’s a list)
  16. In-network opportunities — Look into the opps your affiliate network may be offering [example here]
  17. Keyword optimization — If your program is run on a network, make sure you’re easily findable!
  18. Symbiotic recruitment — Aka: “I announce your program to my affiliates, you announce mine to yours”
  19. Syntryx — A tool worth checking out.
  20. Outsource it — If you don’t want to mess with all of the above, you can always hire an OPM to do it for you

Something to add in conclusion: in compiling the above list I’ve stayed away from the tools and methods which I, personally, have never tried.

If I have missed something that has worked well for you, please do let me (and my blog’s readers) know about it via the “Comments” area below.

18 thoughts on “20 Effective Tools for Affiliate Recruitment”

    1. Yes, I’ve been in touch with them regarding this last week, Kush; and they told me that they’re currently revising the website, and it should be back up “probably mid to end of the month.” In the meantime, I will connect you with them via email.

  1. Hi Geno,

    I’m also looking for the Syntrix Demo, besides that..

    Is facebook/twitter also a great opportunity for the very small niche merchants? We do consultancy for some small merchants and I think 1 “consultancy-twitter-account” is not what they’re waiting for, they want specific information about their campaigns?

  2. Hallo,

    I cannot remember where I saw the tool for creating affiliate datafeeds. Maybe on this site, however I am not able to find it. The main idea is that you just go to the website where the products are and just picking images, description, price and etc. In that way you create datafeeds manually. Maybe someone knows where that tool is?

    Thanks
    Kestutis

  3. Hi,

    It was software. I did some searches and found some of them that do such things: VietSpider, Web Data Extractor, Easy Web Data Extractor, mozenda.com. There are more like these. They are very useful if you consider creating affiliate datafeeds.

    Thanks for reply

  4. Yesterday I bought WebMerge and I am currently in the process of learning this software. I think it is very powerful. Thanks for the list, Geno!

    1. My pleasure, Kestutis. Should you have any other comments on this subject, please post them under the other post (to stay on the topic). Thanks.

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