The First Five Things To Do When You Join A New Affiliate Program

We are so excited to announce a new video training series with Affiliate Manager Anne Parris and Outreach Manager Lynsey Kmetz: “Affiliate Marketing A to Z.”

In the first video of the series, we cover the First Five Things To Do When You Join A New Affiliate Program!

Whether you are new to affiliate marketing or have been at it for years, this quick checklist will help you maximize your first 90 days with a new program.

 1. Check the program policies. 

Before posting anything for the new program you want to make sure you completely understand all of their terms of service so you do not do anything to get yourself terminated from the program. 

If you are a content creator, you are most likely not one of the corporate affiliates that we classify as a traditional coupon, cashback, paid search or shopping cart abandonment provider.

If there is ever a compliance question, simply reach out to your affiliate manager for clarification.

One of the benefits of programs currently managed by Apogee is that you can order through your own affiliate links as well as use any coupon or discounts that are available.

This gives you the opportunity to share every aspect of the purchase from start to finish to give a first-hand authentic recommendation.

2. Check current specials.

With a managed affiliate program you will receive a monthly email with current specials to promote to your audience. When you first sign on with a new affiliate program be sure to check what the current specials are, in case you have missed that monthly email. 

In ShareASale, you can view that information when you login and visit the Deals and Coupons Database. You can choose to view all of the sales network-wide or narrow it down to just the programs you are currently in.

Archives of previous newsletters are also available in ShareASale. They are a great resource for seeing previous offers, deals, and sales cycles from the brand.

3. Connect with your Affiliate Manager.

One of the biggest benefits of working with a managed affiliate program is having a dedicated affiliate manager. Your manager can help you maximize your earnings potential with guidance, suggestions and even insider news about the company and program. 

Your affiliate manager is your best resource for sales and specials from the brand, brainstorming ideas for content creation, making sure you are in compliance with FTC and more.

Affiliate managers occasionally have sponsored campaign opportunities as well, and go to their affiliates they know will be a good fit for the brand. Building a relationship with your affiliate manager is a great way to maximize your earning potential.

4. Think about old content on your site that would work well with the new affiliate program.

Joining a new program does not mean you must immediately create new content. In fact, you probably have old content that would be a great fit to update with your new affiliate links.

To make this less of a daunting task, Pretty Links Pro has an amazing “Replacement Tool” that lets you automatically add affiliate links to keywords throughout your site with just a few clicks. 

Simply create the “pretty link” with your affiliate link and set the terms that you would like hyperlinked throughout your site. The Pretty Links Pro Replacement Tool lets you automatically add links without even having to open the post!

Unlike sponsored posts, affiliate posts can include links to several different affiliate products within the same post, offering an even better solution to your readers.

5. Think about what new content you can create around the products of your affiliate program.

There are several benefits to creating new content for your affiliate program — it not only gives you fresh content for your readers but gives an additional place to interlink your site to the old content mentioned before for SEO benefit.

Also, when you create new content, consider sending it into your affiliate manager — they may have additional ideas for how to utilize the content and may send it over to the brand, which can turn into more opportunities for you in the future.

Remember, evergreen product reviews offer long term affiliate opportunities that convert well.