I am wanting to start an affiliate program to start to build up a bigger client base.

However, I simply have no clue on how to get started with this.

any particular software or method I will need to use? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

This is a topic I am interested in as well. So, I did a quick search on one of my favorite software finding sites. I came up with a soft ware. I am unable to post links so I am just going to tell you the name.
The software is called “Jrox” It looks pricey and cost about 250 bucks. I have never used it. They allow a down load and have a demo up for both the admin and the users panel.
It looks like it tracks all of these.

• View Affiliates

• Pay Affiliates

• Add New Affiliate

• View Commissions

• Add Commission

• Top Performers

• Monthly Reports

• Edit Programs

• Website Referrers

• Monthly Traffic


I would like to know if others use something else and how effective their programs are.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks for sharing, I will take a look at jrox. Another one I know is idevaffiliate but I'm having trouble configuring it.

You might also want to check into Commission Junction. Depending on your needs, they really take care of a lot of the backend stuff for you, leaving you free to just manage your creatives and promote.

You might also want to check into Commission Junction. Depending on your needs, they really take care of a lot of the backend stuff for you, leaving you free to just manage your creatives and promote.

Not to mention that you need to pay CJ about $5k to start the affiliate system and about 30% on a sale to CJ. Matt just forgot to mention that little bit.

There are of course cheaper options to CJ (eg. shareasale.com, though if one wants to tap into a great resource of super affiliates, it remains an arguable best choice.

Ultimateaffiliate from www.groundbreak.com also used to be rather popular among hosting companies.

Affiliate programs are great, but I would just caution that if you plan on allowing non-customers to participate in the program, be very wary of fraud. What happens is the fraudulent person will setup an affiliate account with you and sign up fraudulent accounts with their affiliate code/link. If you don't catch them fast enough you can look at it as a double hit because you have to cancel the account for fraud, possibly paying charge back fees, but the affiliate who caused the fraud still gets paid for the referral account. Best way to help avoid this is to set up a waiting period before the referred account is paid on, say 90 days or something, so you have a chance to catch up on the possible fraud accounts.

We have been running our affiliate program for some time, we currently use Jrox as listed above. The free version found http://jam.jrox.com/download/ has a 50 user limitation with it but it works just the same as the paid version.

Something that we have done which helps weed out the frauds is have a holding time before payments are made. Example 60 days after signup before payments are made. Also set a $X amount before checks are cut. Yes it will take a little time for legit customers to get there money, but a trade off well worth it.

Anthony

There are of course cheaper options to CJ (eg. shareasale.com, though if one wants to tap into a great resource of super affiliates, it remains an arguable best choice.

Ultimateaffiliate from www.groundbreak.com also used to be rather popular among hosting companies.

Yeah, there are a lot of cheaper alternatives to CJ... BUT none of them offer the exposure that CJ can offer. Also, the $5000 fee (if I remember correctly) is $2,000 activation + $3,000 deposit (that is used to pay future commissions.) In CJ you have to keep a minimum escrow balance of $500 at all times, or risk having your CJ program shut down, so you have to regularly put more money into the program.

That said, CJ is a great affiliate network with a massive affiliate base that offers a great deal of exposure that other, smaller, affiliate networks simply can't deliver.

Hope that helps,

Dan

Affiliate programs are great, but I would just caution that if you plan on allowing non-customers to participate in the program, be very wary of fraud. What happens is the fraudulent person will setup an affiliate account with you and sign up fraudulent accounts with their affiliate code/link. If you don't catch them fast enough you can look at it as a double hit because you have to cancel the account for fraud, possibly paying charge back fees, but the affiliate who caused the fraud still gets paid for the referral account. Best way to help avoid this is to set up a waiting period before the referred account is paid on, say 90 days or something, so you have a chance to catch up on the possible fraud accounts.

The biggest [hosting] affiliates are probably not going to also be your customers, and limiting your affiliate program to only your clients is basically restricting your own growth.

Dan

if you are using WHMCS for your billing it has a very good inbuilt affiliate program.

Go with either whmcs if you use this control panel, or use PostAffiliatePro by qualityunit, works very good and can be customized to fit your needs.