How to Educate Your Affiliates

If you were operating a brick and mortar business, you wouldn't put your sales team to work without training them, would you? Of course not! You'd spend time teaching them how to promote your products so they would know exactly what to do and what order to do it in.

The same principle applies here. You are the sales coach, and your affiliate team is depending on you to teach them how to sell. Never assume that just because affiliates join your program that they know how to market and sell. In reality, the majority of them will have no marketing knowledge or experience, so they are looking for direction from you.

One of the best ways to provide that direction and properly train your affiliates is to provide checklists for EVERYTHING. Not only should each promotional tool should have its own step-by-step list for putting it into action, but each product should come with its own marketing plan.

A sample plan might look something like this:

--Week one, send a broadcast message to your list.
--Week two, distribute a free report.
--Week three, post a product review on your blog.

Don't make your affiliates wonder what to do with your materials. Be a leader and show them how to succeed. A great way to show them is to create text or video tutorials. You only have to create these tutorials once and post them in your training center for all affiliates to use.

You also want to provide as many choices as possible when recommending marketing options and resources. Don't give them the best keyword; give them the top ten. Don't give them three ways to distribute articles, give them 15. Don't suggest one place to buy a solo mailing in an ezine; suggest 20.

The more choices you give them, the more likely they are to take action. Plus if you give them many options, they'll do many things. Providing the basics is a good start, but some affiliates may be ready for more than the basics. So provide more advanced training as well.

For instance, teach your affiliates how to write their own ezine articles that promote your products. Or hold training teleseminars that teach them how to sell, how to become experts in pay-per-click advertising or even how to create their own products that backend your product.

The more your affiliates know, the more traffic they will be able to drive to your site. Keep them educated!

About The Author-- Glen Hopkins specializes in teaching struggling entrepreneurs how to turn their small Online businesses into thriving money machines all while working less and earning more. To get more information, including Free Reports, Videos and CDs, visit: http://www.GlenHopkins.name

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