One way to strengthen your case is to find a mid-sized or small company that’s looking to advertise and partner with them to create a case study on the life provided to their brand, not through direct sales but overall, after a program is put in place. From clicks to sales increases to social chatter and mentions, you can create a matrix showing the different types of sales, retention and brand increases that you deliver, which you can then use to convince additional advertisers of the value that you have to offer. Many communities are not yet in a position to accomplish this. Even if they are, affiliate programs can still be a great source of additional revenue.
Finding the Right Affiliate Programs The number of affiliate programs is staggering. If you are new to them, you’ll be surprised. Huge companies have them and tiny companies have them. Though virtually all large online retailers offer them, in addition to many smaller ones, it goes way beyond just the companies you’d traditionally consider a retailer. For example, American Express pays large bounties for new credit card applications, Ford compensates affiliates for visitors who request a quote on a new car and TurboTax also pays for new customers. No matter what your community is about, there is likely to be a large selection of affiliate programs that will resonate with your visitors. Your goal, then, is to find the ones that work best for you. The way that one program operates may vary widely from how another does. This can include the amount of products offered, the tools that they provide you for using their program, the payment structure and how much they pay you. Though it may seem easy to gravitate toward the programs that pay you the highest rate, being blind to other factors is a mistake. It doesn’t matter if someone pays you a 50% commission if it is on a product that your audience has no interest in. 50% of $0 is still $0. Meanwhile, 5% of a product that they love may generate much more revenue for you. Companies that sell a wide array of products, like Amazon.com and eBay, will serve a lot of communities well, but it is important to dig deeper and consider the companies that serve the topic that your forums cover. A good starting point is to visit the websites of the companies that you think would do well and the companies that your community routinely talks about.
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