11:59 PST). That affiliate was promised to be "valued" and "marked as different" by getting a $20 bonus payment in their affiliate account. As with all other ideas, feel free to modify this one to fit your own situation and goals. Sliding Scale of Commission Increases I already touched upon this idea in the framework of the 1-2-3-4-5 Week I ran for a cli- ent of mine, and I'll elaborate on it here. I believe this idea deserves special attention, because it fits best into periods much longer than a day or a week. This idea may be used well within a period of one month, half a year, or even a year. The idea is simple: You offer your affiliates higher commission levels on larger sales sent to you. The commis- sion increases they get kick in with a fairly small amount of sales sent in--something achievable and realistic. Affiliates--especially those who send you zero hits/sales--do not get motivated by promos calling on them to "generate $5,000 in sales during the next month." Look at it from their point of view. Provide testimonials demonstrating the achievability of the task (if possible, backed up with screenshots that have affiliate names and details blanked out, of course), and make it attractive and motivating. If you have started running a program for a merchant with a large profit margin (for example, inexpensive jewelry, certain publications, and so on), talk to the owners of the business or whoever oversees the affiliate program management, and offer them a sliding scale of commission increases as a promo that could jump-start the program. I had a merchant with the base commission set at 10 percent that agreed to cut his own profit for the sake of jump-starting his program. So, we ran the following one-month campaign: · · · S end a total of $500 in sales--get an 11 percent commission on all of them S end $1,000 in sales--get 12 percent in commissions S end $2,000 in sales--get 13 percent commission on all of them 379 SL I DI NG SC A L E OF COM M ISSION I NCR E A SE S A month down the road when the sales did pick up and I remembered the suc- cess of the previous offer, I raised some of the qualifying amounts, also offering more attractive commission increases: · · · S end a total of $500 in sales--get a 12 percent commission on all of them S end $1,500 in sales--get 13 percent in commissions S end $2,699+ in sales--get 14 percent commission on all of them I was basically offering a 20 percent increase of the default 10 percent commission if they reach $500 in sales, a more than 33 percent increase for $1,500, and a 40 percent increase for $2,699+ in sales. I am convinced that one way or another, the commission increase idea will work for any affiliate program. Be prepared, however, that some merchants may consider it as