Face it – the entire reason you have affiliates is to create a way to duplicate your efforts in order to sell more products and make more money. In order to do this you need to run a fair and honest affiliate program that focuses on your return on investment (ROI), the needs of your affiliates, and the pain points of your customers. This can be quite a balancing act. Here are eight ways to achieve just that.

1) Create Awesome Products – No matter how great everything else is, if you don’t have fabulous products that your affiliates can proudly support and get behind, you will have trouble making sales. Spend the time, effort and money up front making the best products you can so that you can sell them for top dollar and thrill your clients in the process.

2) Choose Your Platform Wisely – The affiliate software you choose is very important. It’ll be how your customers purchase your products and how your affiliates are able to get the tools from you to promote your product, as well as how you and they will be able to analyze what is working and what is not. Take the time to study the different platforms available before choosing.

3) Price Your Products Right – The best way to do this is to price based on perceived value that the product offers your customer, giving them a price they are happy to pay. You want them to pay enough to make it worth it to an affiliate to promote it, but not so much that they feel ripped off when they get the product. Under promise and over deliver.

4) Provide a Fair Commission Rate – In most cases you need to provide at least a 50 percent commission on digital products, if not more. Remember that with digital products your price of development goes down with each sale, not up as it would with a physical item. So, you can afford to offer higher commission rates for digital products.

5) Give Your Affiliates the Right Tools – To keep good affiliates, make it easy for them to promote your products by providing them with the right tools. That might be branded content, landing pages that convert, art work, apps and more. Give them what they need to promote your product and they will work harder.

6) Train Your Affiliates – Even though some affiliates will show up that already know what to do, it’s a good idea to offer training to your affiliates such as videos that show them how to cut and paste your art work, add in their affiliate code, promote your products, and more.

7) Incentivize Your Affiliates – Run sales contests with bonus commissions, or other prizes for high sales over a certain amount. The more you give encouragement and incentives, the harder they’ll work.

8) Reward Great Affiliates and Weed Out Non-Performers – It’s hard, but sometimes you just have to clean up your affiliate list. If someone has joined but has been inactive for a year or more, try asking them why and point them to your training. And if that doesn’t work, remove them from the program.

By focusing on your product, providing excellent customer service, and following the rest of the ways to improve your affiliate program ROI, you’ll make more money than before because you will be more focused on the things that matter most.