Generating Leads with an Affiliate Program

An affiliate program is an online referral system that offers a commission to the source of the lead. When prospective customers click through on a link or close a sale, the originating site receives a payment. While often used by product companies, affiliate programs can be equally valuable for cross‐referrals among service providers. They can be a wonderful source of leads, but they can also turn into one giant aggravation.

The grandmother of affiliate programs, Amazon.com Associates, is worth reviewing as a model (http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join). For information about other affiliate programs, see some of the sites in Table 9-4 .

Table 9-4: Affiliate Program Resources

Name	URL	What You'll Find
About.com	http://onlinebusiness.about.com/od/affiliateprograms	Affiliate information
AffiliateGuide	www.affiliateguide.com	Affiliate directory
Affiliate Programs Directory	www.affiliate-programs-directory.com	Affiliate directory
AffiliatePrograms.com	www.affiliateprograms.com	Affiliate directory
Amazon	http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join	Amazon associate program
Commission Junction	www.cj.com	Affiliate hosting
eBay	http://affiliates.ebay.com/best-practices	Affiliate information
HowStuffWorks	http://money.howstuffworks.com/affiliate-program1.htm	Affiliate information
iDevDirect.com	www.idevdirect.com/index.php	Affiliate software
Internet Retailer	www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=16248	Affiliate marketing survey
LinkShare	www.linkshare.com/affiliates/offers.shtml	Affiliate hosting
MyReferer	www.myreferer.com	Affiliate hosting
SimplytheBest	http://simplythebest.net/affiliates/	Affiliate information