When it comes to marketing your products, you’re going to need an effective strategy to advertise what you have for sale. Joining an affiliate program is definitely one of the best ways to accomplish this. However, you may already be in business and, for one reason or another, you’ve decided that you would rather do the affiliating on your own. Or, if you’re just getting started, you may have the independent spirit that tells you to do it for yourself or not to do it at all. In either case, you can start your own affiliate program to market your products on the internet. Let’s look at how it can be done.

The first thing you will need to do is decide what websites out there will offer the type of traffic that would want to buy what you’re selling. If your in business selling power tools, you wouldn’t want to contact a website that discusses pets. This just wouldn’t be a good choice as an affiliate marketer. You would be far better off choosing websites whose subject matter is comparable to your merchandise. A website discussing mechanics, or construction, would be a far better lead for you to follow. It’s all about matching like for like and creating a list of potential affiliate marketers.

Once you have your list, you will need to develop a solid sales letter to send the webmaster of each site. When you do this, be sure to include all of the selling points for your proposal, and information on what commission you are offering for sales generated by them. Proofread the letter carefully, as this is your one chance for a good impression. Send the letters out.

Once you’ve signed on some affiliate marketers, you’ll need affiliate software to keep track of the sales generated, and how much commission you need to pay. Then you will be responsible for cutting the commission checks and sending them out. An alternative to managing all of this yourself is to enlist the services of a third-party affiliate tracker. This company will manage the tracking of sales and the distribution of commissions for you. Either option will work.

No matter which way you choose, running your own affiliate marketing operation to sell your products will give you the control over where and how the advertisements are placed, and over who will be directing traffic to your site. Be aware, though, that this is more work than having an affiliate program run it for you. But if you know what you want, this is how it’s done.