Step Four—Contracting Out Your Recruiting
If you don’t have the time or resources to create a team dedicated to promoting your affiliate program, you might want to look at contracting out the recruiting job to an outside agency. There are several to choose from.
Start with AffiliatePeople.com (www.affiliatepeople.com/) (see Figure 6.15). If you want to advertise your affiliate program both online and off line, they can create a comprehensive media-placement campaign. They also can help your company obtain placement in affiliate directories, provide ongoing directory maintenance, and find and sign-up high-performing affiliates targeted for your company. There are several other companies that do the same (see Table 6.3).
Figure 6.15. AffiliatePeople.com can help advertise your affiliate program both online and off line.
| Affiliate Performance | www.affiliateperformance.com |
| Alliance Builder | www.alliancebuilder.com |
| Carat Interactive | www.carat-na.com |
| E-Base Interactive Inc. | www.ebaseinc.com |
| eComm Works | www.ecomworks.com |
| FlightPath Marketing | www.flightpathllc.com |
| greater than one inc. | www.greaterthanone.com |
| i-traffic | www.i-traffic.com |
| LinkProfits | www.linkprofits.com |
| Mass-Transit Interactive | www.mass-transit.com |
| SK Consulting | www.skconsulting.com |
| TargetMarket Interactive | www.tmi-la.com |
| Vizium | www.vizium.com |
Outsourcing companies outside of the United States include AffiliateMarketing.co.uk (www.affiliatemarketing.co.uk/consulting.htm), DVisions Limited (www.dvisions.co.uk), simplesiteUK (www.simplesiteuk.com), as well as ukaffiliates.com (www.ukaffiliates.com). These companies are all located in the United Kingdom.
Do
| DO try to get a pay-for-performance agreement when contracting out to an affiliate recruitment service. Make their payment rely on not how many affiliates they sign up, but on how many of them place your links on their pages. |
Consider this suggestion before signing a contract with one of these services. If you are going to pay another organization to recruit affiliates for you, try to tie its payments to results. Pay the affiliate recruiting service not on how many affiliate sites they sign up, but on how many of them place your links on their pages. For example, tie the recruiting service’s compensation to an action, such as paying the service only if and when a recruited affiliate makes one or two sales, or when a certain number of click-throughs are performed from an affiliate’s site. This way you should be able to get a higher quality of affiliates for your program. It may cost you more than just paying for quantity, but it can be worth it for the quality of affiliates you get. For the most up-to-date list of companies for contracting out your program, visit www.affiliatemanager.net/outsource.htm.