How to create a successful affiliate program?

Affiliate Platform vs. Self-Hosting: Your Final Choice

So, you’re selling a product or service, and started considering an affiliate program in order to increase your sales? You are on the right way! An affiliate program is a proven means to incite others to promote your business. The benefits of creating an affiliate program are numerous, and, yet, despite the different ways an affiliate program can help you grow your business, many shy away due to the perceived difficulties. The main factor deterring people from starting an affiliate program is not knowing which service or tool to use and whether to use a self-hosted solution or to join a managed affiliate platform. Let’s dive into and take a look, whether running your own self-hosted affiliate program or using an affiliate platform is the best option for you and your goals.

1. Ease of Use

When it comes to choosing between a self-hosted affiliate tool or specific ready-to-use solution, be sure to consider ease of use. If you want to host your own affiliate program, you’ll need to choose the right tool or plugin, then install and configure it. Also, you’ll be responsible for monitoring the performance of your program to ensure it’s working as it should. On the other hand, joining an established affiliate platform takes much of the work off your hands. With 0 money spent o creating infrastructure, you can spend just a few hours on setting up an affiliate program that is ready to go!

2. Support

While both options provide you with some level of support, a good affiliate platform will constantly control their system and, in turn, your program. You’ll also have someone to turn to who has instant access to your account should anything go wrong. If you choose to self-host your own affiliate program, you’ll be able to give the product support staff access to your site. However, the whole process will be much less responsive in general. Affiliate platforms are supported by professional staff members, who can help you if questions arise.

3. Promotion

Your affiliate program depends on how successful your affiliates are. This means, you’ll need to recruit a number of high-quality affiliates. Finding the right affiliates to promote your products can be difficult. Consolidating all your affiliates in one place and tracking the performance of each affiliate can become a tedious task if you do not have the right tools. However, with affiliate platform, you can track the performance and additionally manage your program by adding, sales, promo code, banners and discounts in one place. There, it can be found by affiliates looking for deals to promote.

4. Credibility

If an affiliate program is managed by a reputable platform, it’s a good indication they’re promoting a legitimate product or service. If you’re self-hosting your own affiliate program, unless you’re a well-known brand, you’ll have to work to prove your credibility. Many affiliate platforms have similar features and pricing, however, you still need to be careful while choosing. Start small and grow with flexible plans at a comfortable pace, without spending too much on excessive offers from big platforms.

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Final Thoughts

If you want to get access to a large base of affiliates, while not spending time and money managing your in-house program, as well as get everything done once and stable, choosing working with the established affiliate platforms is no-brainer. Of course, provided you choose the right one! Indoleads is happy to introduce you to the affiliate tracking platform that we use since the inception of our affiliate network. OneKlix is a proven solution for any company that wants to create an affiliate program, no matter large or small – this tracking platform can handle any amounts of traffic and provide you with accurate and transparent data to grow your business.

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If you are a publisher looking for awesome affiliate programs – check out our Best Affiliate Programs for the US!