Affiliate scheme advice

[whitesparkpromo]

hello all.

Looking for some advice from some ecommerce experts.

We have just launched our affiliate scheme for our print website, and everything is ready to rock.

The problem we have is trying to find affiliates, we don't know where to start. I have searched google for ages and there are loads of companies that you can register with who get you affiliates, but I don't know which ones are worth it?

Any ideas for cheap or free easy ways to get affiliates in the uk to test the water before we pay the big money on one of these schemes?

Look forward to your replies.

Stu

[Greg]

That's the problem if you don't go to one of the affiliate networks, having to find your own affiliates, knowing and understanding them and reworking and promoting that, is the hardest part.

I'd almost recommend a re-think.

[TechFox]

http://affiliatefuture.co.uk/merchants/default.asp

[Toon]

http://www.a4uforum.co.uk/forumindex.php?

That's a large forum based solely on affiliate marketing.

[SillyJokes]

First you must join the affiliate forum

http://www.a4uforum.co.uk

and you need to be friendly and don't dive in with your offering like some kind of manic forum spammer. Expect critism - but you will be seen by a fair number of the top affiliates in the country there.

Scond of all you you need to go round to all the affiliate scheme directories and submit your site manually. Hopefully you have set it up as a two tier scheme so that these directories can expect to get a little money from every sale they people they get to sign up with you make.

Third of all, you will have to try and get into shopping directories - many of these are affilaite sites and you can submit your store as long as you have an affilaite program.

You can also use your program to track results from Kelkoo, froogle, adwords and any other online relationships you create.

It is a bit of a slog but if you try and fit in an hour a day for two weeks and gradually reduce it there will be a return in the long run.

Really good affiliates sometimes find you because it gives them a degree of exclusivity which the networks remove.

I have roughly the same number on my network as my independent program and my indy program does 10 times the amount of business. It's down to quality of affiliates. Networks send you 98% dross.

Edit to add that the affiliate forum is organising a nget2gether on Sept 15th in London and it is fantasitc for networking with potential affilaites.