Setting Up an Ebook Affiliate Program

Shelley Lowery
When you begin marketing your ebook on the Internet, you
can dramatically increase your sales with an affiliate program.
An affiliate program will enable you to recruit an entire sales
force to market your ebook for you. The great thing about
having an affiliate program is that your affiliates work for you
on a commission basis. They are paid a specified percentage
for each sale they make. If they don't make any sales, they
won't get paid.

The key to obtaining affiliates is to offer a nice commission for
each sale. The higher the commissions, the more affiliates
you'll recruit.

There are thousands of affiliate programs on the Internet. In
order to be successful, you must sell your affiliate program
just like your product. In other words, your affiliate letter
should be written like a sales letter. You must persuade your
visitors to join your affiliate program by packing your affiliate
sales letter with benefits. Tell them exactly what your affiliate
program will do for them, how much commission they will
receive and make the sign-up process simple.

Setting Up Your Affiliate Program

When you're ready to set up your affiliate program, there are
basically two options. The first option is to purchase an
affiliate software program. Affiliate software will track your
affiliate sales and enable your affiliates to view their stats.
This option requires that you run your affiliate program and
you are responsible for accepting payment and sending out
commission checks.

The second option is to use a third party affiliate tracking
company to run your affiliate program for you. These
companies will track your affiliate sales, enable your affiliates
to check their stats and send out commission checks for you.

Affiliate Tracking Software

AssocTRAC
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=2333

Pro-TRACK
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=61

Affiliate Tracking Companies

ClickBank
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=196

Commission Junction
http://www.commissionjunction.com/

Increasing Affiliate Sales

The key to developing a successful affiliate team is to keep
your affiliates motivated. Set up an opt-in list to enable them
to subscribe and receive new promotional methods, sales letters
and articles to assist them in making more sales. This will not
only increase their sales, but it will also enable you to keep in
contact with your affiliates and introduce new products.

Nobody knows more about your ebook than you do. Set up a
page on your web site and provide your affiliates with all of the
promotional information they'll need to market your ebook.
This information might include all of the following:

- Banners
- Sample ads
- Articles
- Reviews
- Sales letters
- Autoresponder courses

To further increase sales, create a sample or limited version
of your ebook. This ebook should be used to intrigue and
persuade your readers to purchase the full version. This can
be accomplished by allowing your readers to only view a
portion of your ebook. In order for them to gain full access
to your ebook, they must purchase the password.

The key to using this technique successfully is to enable
your affiliates to customize the sales links within the ebook
with their affiliate information. This will provide your affiliates
with a viral marketing tool that they can freely distribute and
earn commissions for years to come.

Creating a Customizable Ebook

In order to create an ebook that can be customized by your
affiliates, your ebook must be in HTML (EXE) format. In
addition, you must have a special ebook compiler. This
compiler will enable you to specify certain areas within your
ebook that may be customized. When your affiliate downloads
your ebook, they will also need to download an additional
software that will be used to place their affiliate information
within your ebook. There are very few compilers on the
market that use this technology.

Here are two that I recommend:

Ebook Edit Pro
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=2894

Activ E-book
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=105

Both of these compilers will enable you to create an ebook
with customizable fields.

Developing your own affiliate program will not only enable
you to increase your sales, but it will also drive targeted
traffic to your web site. Even if your visitor decides not to
purchase your ebook, they may be interested in some other
products your web site offers.

Take your time and select the best affiliate option for your
business. If you'd rather not take the time to run your affiliate
program, you may want to use one of the third party affiliate
companies. This is the easiest route and will enable you to
concentrate on more important things -- like making more sales
and writing new ebooks.

About the Author

Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter. A complete
ebook design kit that takes you step by step through
designing, creating and marketing your own ebook. Give
your ebook a professional look in just a few simple steps
with over 100 ebook interface and cover templates.
http://www.web-source.net/ebookstarter.htm