Affiliate programs are a great way for small businesses to get started selling their products without a lot of capital. The problem is that a lot of people already know this. That means if you’re going to have an affiliate marketing program, you’ve got to do it right. Here are some tips to get you started on your way to a successful program.

Find your niche. Running an affiliate program doesn’t require much capital to start, but it can take up a lot of time finding and maintaining relationships with affiliates. That’s why it’s very useful to have a specific niche for your programs. That way you only have so many affiliates and can often resell to affiliates and customers. You can make a profit without spreading yourself too thin.

Find the right affiliates. Sure, a popular website is a great way to get started when looking for someone to advertise your products and services, but it also has to have the same target demographic as what you’re selling. If you’re marketing help with your home business, a website for stay-at-home moms is probably better than one targeted towards children. The more specific to your niche, the better. But try not to be too specific, or the audience of the websites will be too small.

Treat your affiliates well. After you’re done doing that, treat them better. There are thousands of affiliate programs out there for your partners to choose from. If they don’t work with you, they’re very likely to find someone else to work with. That means you not only need to pay your affiliates well, you also need to treat them well, be prompt, and keep up a great professional relationship.

Find the right incentive. Among the other decisions you need to make, you’ll want to find the right incentive program for your affiliates. While pay per click is going to make the job easy for your affiliates, pay per sale or client is going to inspire them to do a bit more on their page than just click. If you provide a large percentage per sale, affiliates will often write entire sales letters for your product or promote it in other ways. You may also consider special benefits for affiliates like free or reduced price products.

Find the right kind of link. There are all kinds of links you can use to get someone sent to your website: embedded text, banners, search boxes, and other less common methods. You can also have them link to specific products, your main webpage, or a store front. If you want to actually sell products or find clients, you need to research all the choices and make the right decision for what you’re trying to do.

Be creative. Affiliate marketing is about getting people’s attention, just like commercials on TV. Whatever method you choose, you have to be creative, whether it’s through your banners, your website, or your affiliate incentive program. You have to get people’s attention and give them a reason to use you over the other guys.