This is the first in a series of three posts about how self-publishing authors, and many other entrepreneurs, can use affiliate marketing to ramp up sales of their books and products on a direct-to-consumer basis.

Many self-publishing authors want to take advantage of the obvious benefits of a marketing method that is highly automated. But it can be a high-overhead method of doing business if it is not managed well.

What is affiliate marketing? This expression can be over-used, so for the purposes of our discussion, let us define it as a way by which consumers click on your advert or link hosted on a website somewhere (or in an email that someone sends out), and you pay the person hosting the ad a small fee for referring the sale.

Affiliate marketing is a just like any traditional sales referral relationship, except that the entire thing is tracked and driven by an automated system. The statistics of your affiliate’s progress are easy for all involved to see at any time, just by logging into the affiliate management system, which is web-based, and not something installed on a privately-managed computer somewhere. Most payments are made virtually, using PayPal or other transaction providers. (At least, until you’re making big enough money that you require a bank draft!) Transparency is the key to making your affiliates happy, and that means giving them easy access to information.

This powerful marketing method is not new, but certain industries are working it in better ways than others. It is tried and true, and there are a variety of tools – both free and paid – that will help you accomplish it. It’s not really that deep, but like many things in business, it’s easy to make it much more complicated than it needs to be.

By setting up an automated system to manage and attract new Affiliates (the people who have the websites where your banners are displayed), you are setting in motion a process that is more or less self-sustaining. After setup, the real work in affiliate marketing comes in the areas of creating new ads that keep consumers and potential new affiliates interested, and in the area of running weekly or monthly reports.

Your affiliates need;
- ads that will pay them well for each sale; not just a few cents, but good dollars
- ads that are really going to convert browsers into sellers (or else nobody makes any money)
_ ads that are professional and attractive, not cheezy or amateurish
- good follow-up and reporting, or preferably an easy way to self-access information
- ads for products that relate well to the audience they already have (gourmet food audiences don’t want to see used car ads, etc.)
- prompt payment

As an advertiser, you will need;
- a master control system to manage your ads, your affiliates and their payments
- to create quality text-based or graphic ads (most people farm this out)
- a finely-tuned shopping cart and website / page where people can buy your product (see the next post for my not-so-secret weapon in this area)
- to remain objective and flexible about what works and what doesn’t
- to be prepared for sales to take off, by having product stock and a good shipping system already in place
- to spend time on the phone talking to potential affiliates, managing relationships, etc., but this is typically minimal unless you’re really selling like crazy, in which case it’s worth it

In the following posts in this series, we’ll talk about the real tools that I use to manage my affiliates, a glossary of terms, avoiding pitfalls, and how to get started as cheaply as possible. Stay tuned!