Most affiliates concentrate exclusively on direct sales. For affiliates this means joining an affiliate program and marketing the product or service through their web site or via email. The affiliate earns a commission for every sale made.
Very few affiliates appear to focus on the 2nd tier. Most good affiliate programs are 2 tier which means that as well as direct sales you can also build what I call an ‘affiliate network’.
An affiliate network is the ability to get affiliates signed up under you and earn commissions on the sales that those affiliates make. A common commission structure might be 25% for direct sales and 10% for indirect sales. As an affiliate you can earn 25% on any sales you make.
Building an affiliate network means you can earn 10% on each sale that each affiliate makes. If you have 100 affiliates in your affiliate network then you can see that a few 10% commissions can quickly surpass the 25% direct commission.
If you have an affiliate network of 100 then you will probably only have 5 to 10 of those affiliates making money for you. The others will make nothing.
However those 5 to 10 affiliates can earn you much higher commissions than you alone can make with direct sales. It is just like having your own sales force! Only difference is it’s not your product or service.
Becoming successful with affiliate programs need not be all that difficult. One way to make it easier is to build an affiliate network for each of your affiliate programs. It will certainly boost your affiliate commissions.
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