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> Get Articles > Affiliate and Associate Programs > Two-Tier Affiliate programs are best
Two-Tier Affiliate programs are best
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John Lynch
jjlynch44netscape.net
Marketing Tips
http://www.marketingtips.com/sr/t.x/650274
When you join an affiliate program or start
an affiliate program of your own, you have
to decide whether it will be a single tier
or two-tier program.
With a single tier program you earn a
commission on any sales you make and that
is it. If you are running your own affiliate
program, you pay your affiliates a commission
for any sales they refer and that is all.
However, with a two-tier program, affiliates
are allowed to recruit sub-affiliates and are
paid a small percentage of the sales these
sub-affiliates generate. For example, the
affiliates may earn a 30% commission for
selling product X himself; and when one
of the sub-affiliates makes a sale, the
affiliate may get a 10% commission as well.
This is very profitable for the affiliate as he
can recruit an army of sub-affiliates, all
earning commissions for him without any
effort on his part except for the initial
recruiting process.
If you are starting an affiliate program of
your own should it be two-tier or single tier?
Some might shy away from the seeming
expense of a two-tier program. But is it
really that expensive? Many affiliate
program managers make the wrong decision
on this.
Let's look at an example.
You have an affiliate program up and running
and an average affiliate joins your program.
Mr.Average has a web site that receives
average traffic. He also has an ezine with
thousands of subscribers published monthly.
Mr. Average posts your affiliate links to
his web site and promotes your product
to his ezine list.
Initially, he generates good sales. However,
a point comes when he saturates his market
with your product and his sales begin to drop.
He begins to lose interest in your program
and your sales remain small.
What happens if you set up a two-tier program?
Rather than trying to keep your commission
pay outs small, you motivate your existing
affiliates to recruit other people to your
program. This will exponentially increase
your affiliate sales. Would it not be worth
paying the referring affiliate a percentage
of their sub-affiliates' sales?
Now when Mr.Average joins your affiliate
program this is what would happen. When
he has saturated his market with your product,
he would now promote your affiliate program
to his customers and ezine subscribers.
Many of Mr.Average's customers and
subscribers decide to join the affiliate program.
This in turn will motivate Mr.Average to
continue promoting your products and
recruiting affiliates.
Now what is the situation?
*Your income increases because of increased
sales.
*You have a much larger customer base to
which you can sell 'backend' products.
*An increase in your income because of the
life time loyalty of the customers referred
by your affiliate.
*An army of sub-affiliates who will sell your
products, and in turn promote your affiliate
program to their customers and subscribers.
The little extra in affiliate sales commission
pay outs will be more than compensated for
by the exponential sales increase.
This is why the two-tier affiliate program
is a guaranteed winner and should be the
automatic choice for potential affiliates
and affiliate program managers.
© John Lynch 2002
[ John Lynch is an affiliate of the Internet Marketing
Center - http://www.marketingtips.com/sr/t.x/650274]
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