Baby Steps for Starting an Affiliate Program
Q: I want to set up an affiliate program for my business, but I really do not know where to start. We have a booking system that clicks from the main site to the reservation form which is on a separate URL. I am new to this affiliate stuff so any advice would be welcome.
A: The first thing you're going to need to figure out who is going to manage your affiliate program. That person will take the lead on all of the elements involved in developing your affiliate program.
There are a few routes you can go when it comes to affiliate program management. You can pull somebody internally at your company into the position, hire an experienced affiliate manager, or outsource to an OPM (outsourced program management).
If you go with a current employee, odds are they don't have a background in affiliate marketing. So you're going to need to get them up to speed ASAP.
I would recommend checking out Anik Singal's Affiliate Manager 1st Edition. This is a robust package of educational materials for affiliate managers. Anik also runs an Affiliate Manager Boot Camp to train affiliates.
Another training seminar is run by industry veteran, Andy Rodriguez. Andy runs the Affiliate Manager Certification Seminar and his site indicates that dates will be announced shortly for the next installment.
And the twice yearly Affiliate Summit conference features educational sessions for affiliate managers of all levels.
Hiring an experienced affiliate manager can be a challenge. The universe of talented and well networked affiliate managers is fairly small, so their compensation tends to be pricey.
Try listing a want ad in the typical places like HotJobs, Monster, Craig's List, as well as the affiliate manager job section on the AffiliateManager.net forum.
Outsourcing an affiliate program is an increasingly popular option. On the plus side, you can get some seasoned pros to run your affiliate program without the bother of a learning curve, vacation time, benefits, etc.
Of course, the outsourced affiliate manager won't be in your office, save for some occasional onsite visits. There are a number of companies that offer this service listed on the Affiliate Buyer's Guide.
Friday, December 21, 2007
How to Make Affiliate Program Income and Avoid the Competition
How to Make Affiliate Program Income and Avoid the Competition
There are literally thousands of Affiliate Programs to promote for income, but there is a way to make affiliate program income and avoid your competition. There are certain affiliate programs that are better to promote than others. Yes, you can still make money with commission junction and clickbank, but there is a way to do it without all the searching and competition.
Step #1
The first thing you need to do is understand that clickbank and commission junction are great, but they are not for the beginner. They are better left for later, once you have a steady income and have been successful with your promotion methods. You will find that there are a ton of affiliates already promoting clickbank and commission junction programs.
Step #2
Find a niche. This is the key to all affiliate marketing and is the first thing you should always do. EBay is great for finding niches and so is Google. Understand that making money, lose weight, shopping, and cell phones are all niches, but they are incredibly broad niches and you will lose money if you try to start with anything that broad.
Step #3
Narrow your niche down to a smaller more precise niche. For example, if you are looking in the golf niche, then you could narrow it down to golf swing training or learn how to sink more putts. These would both be much more narrow niches and you will be more successful in these niches than if you just start with golf.
Step #4
Find an independent affiliate program that you can promote to make an income. An independent Affiliate Program is an affiliate program that is not on a network like commission junction or clickbank. Another good alternative is to use a smaller network like clixgalore. This will give you a program that is not being promoted by all the gurus and thousands of other affiliates. There might still be a few hundred affiliates, but there will be less than if you choose a commission junction or clickbank product.
Step #5
Sign up, read the marketing materials, and start promoting. There is no way you will make a dime without promoting and spending your time finding customers. This is the key to Affiliate Marketing and we all know that you cannot make a dime just by joining an affiliate program.
Now you have a five step program to help you make an affiliate program income. You will be able to find programs that are worth your time and learn without losing money like so many failed affiliates have. Good Luck!
Did you know that you can earn huge commission with very little competition by promoting independent affiliate programs? Go here to learn more: Top 5 Independent Affiliate Programs
There are literally thousands of Affiliate Programs to promote for income, but there is a way to make affiliate program income and avoid your competition. There are certain affiliate programs that are better to promote than others. Yes, you can still make money with commission junction and clickbank, but there is a way to do it without all the searching and competition.
Step #1
The first thing you need to do is understand that clickbank and commission junction are great, but they are not for the beginner. They are better left for later, once you have a steady income and have been successful with your promotion methods. You will find that there are a ton of affiliates already promoting clickbank and commission junction programs.
Step #2
Find a niche. This is the key to all affiliate marketing and is the first thing you should always do. EBay is great for finding niches and so is Google. Understand that making money, lose weight, shopping, and cell phones are all niches, but they are incredibly broad niches and you will lose money if you try to start with anything that broad.
Step #3
Narrow your niche down to a smaller more precise niche. For example, if you are looking in the golf niche, then you could narrow it down to golf swing training or learn how to sink more putts. These would both be much more narrow niches and you will be more successful in these niches than if you just start with golf.
Step #4
Find an independent affiliate program that you can promote to make an income. An independent Affiliate Program is an affiliate program that is not on a network like commission junction or clickbank. Another good alternative is to use a smaller network like clixgalore. This will give you a program that is not being promoted by all the gurus and thousands of other affiliates. There might still be a few hundred affiliates, but there will be less than if you choose a commission junction or clickbank product.
Step #5
Sign up, read the marketing materials, and start promoting. There is no way you will make a dime without promoting and spending your time finding customers. This is the key to Affiliate Marketing and we all know that you cannot make a dime just by joining an affiliate program.
Now you have a five step program to help you make an affiliate program income. You will be able to find programs that are worth your time and learn without losing money like so many failed affiliates have. Good Luck!
Did you know that you can earn huge commission with very little competition by promoting independent affiliate programs? Go here to learn more: Top 5 Independent Affiliate Programs
Defining a Successful Affiliate Program
Defining a Successful Affiliate Program
When measuring the success of an affiliate program that you manage, what do you consider to be successful? Doubling the sales of the program from the previous year... tripling it? I have some clients that are still unhappy, no matter how high sales amount to, because their profit margins are very small.
It's important to set expectations at the start when you're taking on the management of an affiliate program on an outsourced basis.
Success is defined markedly different from one company to another depending on their margins, expectations, and success or failure of other forms of marketing and advertising.
At this point, I'd say you have a couple choices. The easy way out would be to just not renew with this client. While you don't want to make a habit of this, there are just some companies that refuse to be satisfied by any results.
Otherwise, I would suggest putting together documentation that demonstrates the success of the affiliate program.
Point out the growth of the affiliate program since you took over. Also, try to pull together data on the competitors. You can get some of this information easily if they share their EPC and other benchmarks, as well as their commission structure.
Otherwise, and this is much more of an investment on your part, become an affiliate of the competition and actively promote them to get a sense of their performance.
After gathering as much information as you can, work to extrapolate these numbers to create a side by side comparison with the affiliate program you are managing.
Maybe you're paying more to affiliates than the competition, or perhaps you're outperforming everybody else in the vertical and you have an unreasonable client.
In the future, I'd encourage you to ask for the past stats on the site - conversion rates, volume of transactions, satisfaction with other marketing and advertising channels, etc. Also, be sure to set expectations with them.
When measuring the success of an affiliate program that you manage, what do you consider to be successful? Doubling the sales of the program from the previous year... tripling it? I have some clients that are still unhappy, no matter how high sales amount to, because their profit margins are very small.
It's important to set expectations at the start when you're taking on the management of an affiliate program on an outsourced basis.
Success is defined markedly different from one company to another depending on their margins, expectations, and success or failure of other forms of marketing and advertising.
At this point, I'd say you have a couple choices. The easy way out would be to just not renew with this client. While you don't want to make a habit of this, there are just some companies that refuse to be satisfied by any results.
Otherwise, I would suggest putting together documentation that demonstrates the success of the affiliate program.
Point out the growth of the affiliate program since you took over. Also, try to pull together data on the competitors. You can get some of this information easily if they share their EPC and other benchmarks, as well as their commission structure.
Otherwise, and this is much more of an investment on your part, become an affiliate of the competition and actively promote them to get a sense of their performance.
After gathering as much information as you can, work to extrapolate these numbers to create a side by side comparison with the affiliate program you are managing.
Maybe you're paying more to affiliates than the competition, or perhaps you're outperforming everybody else in the vertical and you have an unreasonable client.
In the future, I'd encourage you to ask for the past stats on the site - conversion rates, volume of transactions, satisfaction with other marketing and advertising channels, etc. Also, be sure to set expectations with them.
Article Marketing 101 For Affiliate Program Managers
Article Marketing 101 For Affiliate Program Managers
This article is for Affiliate Program Managers: Interested in increasing the amount of revenue that each of your affiliates creates for your business? Read on to learn about how to use your existing articles to grow your affiliate program strength.
From an affiliate perspective, there are only a few 'deal breaker' type things that I insist any affiliate program that I join must provide me:
Real-time reporting statistics
Real-time email alerts upon each sale
Payment on a consistent monthly basis
High price-point products
Package of articles that I can reprint on my websites and ezines
One strategy that many newbie affiliate program designers fail to offer is a package of articles that can be reprinted on my website along with my unique affiliate link. Of the tens of thousands of dollars I'll do this year as an affiliate, you would be shocked at how much of the revenue comes directly from reprinting articles of the affiliate programs I am involved in. This strategy works for me and it can work for you!
Here's what to do:
Designate 10, 25, 50, 75 or 100 articles that will be made available to your affiliates as a dump (meaning all at once and immediately).
Provide them with 3-10 articles per month thereafter that they can reprint along with their affiliate link.
Be certain to spell out the reprint rights of this type of affiliate article marketing so that your articles don't show up on bad websites you wouldn't want to associate with.
Here's what NOT to do:
Allow your articles to be private labeled. This is a poor strategy and will dilute your credibility. They should carry your name or the name of your primary author brand.
Don't give out all of your articles for your affiliates to use. Best to designate a specific "lot" of them that can be used by your affiliates and the rest are yours to keep exclusively for your direct sales audience.
Why this type of article marketing is important for affiliate program managers and affiliates:
Articles are like "sales agents" in that they keep selling for you, day after day, year after year. They also help expand your reach as each article gets indexed by the major search engines. Lastly, they give you another reason to send an email to your list members about the articles available.
This is a credibility builder for the affiliate program manager and it's a "Give" before the "Take" which begins the reciprocation cycle in a positive direction.
Note For Affiliates Who Use Articles To Promote Their Affiliate Programs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some sites (like ours at http://EzineArticles.com/ ) don't accept articles that promote affiliate programs, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go find other sites that do accept articles that promote affiliate program links. I really meant this article to speak directly to affiliate program managers and not the needs of affiliate marketers.
To save you the trouble of sending me an email to ask why EzineArticles.com doesn't accept articles that promote affiliate programs, there are three reasons:
1) Because we don't accept articles that are available on a non-exclusive basis (meaning we only want to see original or exclusive licensed content) and...
2) Because affiliate marketers are not our ideal author profile type and...
3) Because most ezine publishers don't want to reprint articles that pitch an affiliate link. One of the primary purposes of our site is to be a resource for ezine publishers to find supplemental content for their next email newsletter.
With that said, there are plenty of competitor article sites that will allow you to submit your affiliate-link-laced articles, not to mention listing them on your own website.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bottom line: If you offer an affiliate program to promote your products and services, consider immediately offering a package of articles that your affiliates can add to their website or send to their email newsletter lists to further promote your business.
This article is for Affiliate Program Managers: Interested in increasing the amount of revenue that each of your affiliates creates for your business? Read on to learn about how to use your existing articles to grow your affiliate program strength.
From an affiliate perspective, there are only a few 'deal breaker' type things that I insist any affiliate program that I join must provide me:
Real-time reporting statistics
Real-time email alerts upon each sale
Payment on a consistent monthly basis
High price-point products
Package of articles that I can reprint on my websites and ezines
One strategy that many newbie affiliate program designers fail to offer is a package of articles that can be reprinted on my website along with my unique affiliate link. Of the tens of thousands of dollars I'll do this year as an affiliate, you would be shocked at how much of the revenue comes directly from reprinting articles of the affiliate programs I am involved in. This strategy works for me and it can work for you!
Here's what to do:
Designate 10, 25, 50, 75 or 100 articles that will be made available to your affiliates as a dump (meaning all at once and immediately).
Provide them with 3-10 articles per month thereafter that they can reprint along with their affiliate link.
Be certain to spell out the reprint rights of this type of affiliate article marketing so that your articles don't show up on bad websites you wouldn't want to associate with.
Here's what NOT to do:
Allow your articles to be private labeled. This is a poor strategy and will dilute your credibility. They should carry your name or the name of your primary author brand.
Don't give out all of your articles for your affiliates to use. Best to designate a specific "lot" of them that can be used by your affiliates and the rest are yours to keep exclusively for your direct sales audience.
Why this type of article marketing is important for affiliate program managers and affiliates:
Articles are like "sales agents" in that they keep selling for you, day after day, year after year. They also help expand your reach as each article gets indexed by the major search engines. Lastly, they give you another reason to send an email to your list members about the articles available.
This is a credibility builder for the affiliate program manager and it's a "Give" before the "Take" which begins the reciprocation cycle in a positive direction.
Note For Affiliates Who Use Articles To Promote Their Affiliate Programs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some sites (like ours at http://EzineArticles.com/ ) don't accept articles that promote affiliate programs, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go find other sites that do accept articles that promote affiliate program links. I really meant this article to speak directly to affiliate program managers and not the needs of affiliate marketers.
To save you the trouble of sending me an email to ask why EzineArticles.com doesn't accept articles that promote affiliate programs, there are three reasons:
1) Because we don't accept articles that are available on a non-exclusive basis (meaning we only want to see original or exclusive licensed content) and...
2) Because affiliate marketers are not our ideal author profile type and...
3) Because most ezine publishers don't want to reprint articles that pitch an affiliate link. One of the primary purposes of our site is to be a resource for ezine publishers to find supplemental content for their next email newsletter.
With that said, there are plenty of competitor article sites that will allow you to submit your affiliate-link-laced articles, not to mention listing them on your own website.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bottom line: If you offer an affiliate program to promote your products and services, consider immediately offering a package of articles that your affiliates can add to their website or send to their email newsletter lists to further promote your business.
Time to Close the Affiliate Program
Time to Close the Affiliate Program
After three months, my company's CEO is getting antsy regarding our affiliate campaign. We're a somewhat niched market and we've had an account with Commission Junction that has so far yielded very little activity and even fewer sales. At what point should we simply pull the plug on our affiliate campaign?
One thing I hope you did before you got started was to do some competitive research in your niche.
This is something I always do when a prospective client comes to me about outsourcing their affiliate program. I like to be sure an affiliate program makes sense for a company.
One indicator is whether your competitors have an affiliate program. This is certainly not a perfect measure, but if they don't have an affiliate program, this might lead you to question why.
If your competitors do have affiliate programs, be sure that yours is competitive or better than theirs.
Also, look at your current sales without an affiliate program. Affiliates are generally not going to make or break a company, but they can bring in a bunch of incremental sales or leads.
If you already have a vibrant business going, it's probably safe to assume an affiliate program would be a good addition to your marketing arsenal.
This doesn't help you, but hopefully some future folks looking into affiliate programs will dig a little before deciding they need an affiliate program.
So anyhow, your affiliate program isn't working out after three months. I'd generally set an expectation of 3-6 months for an affiliate program to gain momentum, but that's based on the affiliate program being proactively managed.
I've seen too many companies assume their affiliate program can run on auto-pilot. That's not the case, and if you've been operating in that fashion, it's time to allocate more resources to the affiliate program.
I would recommend running your affiliate program with three ongoing directives: recruit, activate, and retain affiliates.
It's essential that you recruit affiliates into your affiliate program, have a process in place to activate them, and then work to retain them.
Affiliate marketing isn't like other marketing channels. Money alone cannot power it - you need to focus on the relationships of your affiliates, too.
If you've been doing all of this and you simply cannot gain traction, you might want to consider bringing in a consultant to troubleshoot the affiliate program and relaunch it.
Now if that doesn't work, put the poor thing out of it's misery and move on.
After three months, my company's CEO is getting antsy regarding our affiliate campaign. We're a somewhat niched market and we've had an account with Commission Junction that has so far yielded very little activity and even fewer sales. At what point should we simply pull the plug on our affiliate campaign?
One thing I hope you did before you got started was to do some competitive research in your niche.
This is something I always do when a prospective client comes to me about outsourcing their affiliate program. I like to be sure an affiliate program makes sense for a company.
One indicator is whether your competitors have an affiliate program. This is certainly not a perfect measure, but if they don't have an affiliate program, this might lead you to question why.
If your competitors do have affiliate programs, be sure that yours is competitive or better than theirs.
Also, look at your current sales without an affiliate program. Affiliates are generally not going to make or break a company, but they can bring in a bunch of incremental sales or leads.
If you already have a vibrant business going, it's probably safe to assume an affiliate program would be a good addition to your marketing arsenal.
This doesn't help you, but hopefully some future folks looking into affiliate programs will dig a little before deciding they need an affiliate program.
So anyhow, your affiliate program isn't working out after three months. I'd generally set an expectation of 3-6 months for an affiliate program to gain momentum, but that's based on the affiliate program being proactively managed.
I've seen too many companies assume their affiliate program can run on auto-pilot. That's not the case, and if you've been operating in that fashion, it's time to allocate more resources to the affiliate program.
I would recommend running your affiliate program with three ongoing directives: recruit, activate, and retain affiliates.
It's essential that you recruit affiliates into your affiliate program, have a process in place to activate them, and then work to retain them.
Affiliate marketing isn't like other marketing channels. Money alone cannot power it - you need to focus on the relationships of your affiliates, too.
If you've been doing all of this and you simply cannot gain traction, you might want to consider bringing in a consultant to troubleshoot the affiliate program and relaunch it.
Now if that doesn't work, put the poor thing out of it's misery and move on.
Making Money Online With Affiliate Programs
Making Money Online With Affiliate Programs
If you have ever researched online internet businesses I am sure you have heard the phrase "affiliate programs" before. Affiliate programs and affiliate marketing are more popular than ever before because they are a good way for beginners to break into internet marketing.
Many people are looking to work at home online and affiliate programs allow the average person to do just that. It is a win-win situation for both marketer and the affiliate owner.
Affiliate programs allow you to sell other peoples' service or product and make a commission on every sale or lead that you bring to them. Most affiliate programs provide you with a ready made website that lets you start making money online right away.
This allows you to concentrate on marketing your site to bring in the customers. Most affiliate programs help you with marketing their product by providing you with resources such as text ads, email promotions, classified ads, banners, and pay-per-click ads. They do this because they know it will help bring you more sales which means more profit for them as well.
Affiliate programs offer several ways to make money online.You can become an affiliate yourself and earn commission by marketing their product. Some allow you to earn commission by signing up other affiliates through your site and you would also earn a percentage of what they sell as well. You could also earn a one time commission by just referring the program to others.
To get the full advantage of affiliate programs I would choose to pursue all of these options. That way you are making money online three ways. By selling the product yourself, earning commission from others who sign up below you, and by referring the program to others. Many people think affiliate programs are easy way to make money fast with no effort. This is not true.You will have to put in considerable hard work and effort in order to succeed just as you would in any other business.
So do your research and be sure to read and understand the terms of each program, especially regarding commission structure, payout, and product return rates. Each of these factors should be considered before deciding which program is the one for you.
When you do find one that suits your needs and you are confident about working online, you will discover that it is just as easy to work several affiliate programs at once as it is to do just one. And the more options you have the more you will make. Before you know it you will be working at home full time making money online.
If you have ever researched online internet businesses I am sure you have heard the phrase "affiliate programs" before. Affiliate programs and affiliate marketing are more popular than ever before because they are a good way for beginners to break into internet marketing.
Many people are looking to work at home online and affiliate programs allow the average person to do just that. It is a win-win situation for both marketer and the affiliate owner.
Affiliate programs allow you to sell other peoples' service or product and make a commission on every sale or lead that you bring to them. Most affiliate programs provide you with a ready made website that lets you start making money online right away.
This allows you to concentrate on marketing your site to bring in the customers. Most affiliate programs help you with marketing their product by providing you with resources such as text ads, email promotions, classified ads, banners, and pay-per-click ads. They do this because they know it will help bring you more sales which means more profit for them as well.
Affiliate programs offer several ways to make money online.You can become an affiliate yourself and earn commission by marketing their product. Some allow you to earn commission by signing up other affiliates through your site and you would also earn a percentage of what they sell as well. You could also earn a one time commission by just referring the program to others.
To get the full advantage of affiliate programs I would choose to pursue all of these options. That way you are making money online three ways. By selling the product yourself, earning commission from others who sign up below you, and by referring the program to others. Many people think affiliate programs are easy way to make money fast with no effort. This is not true.You will have to put in considerable hard work and effort in order to succeed just as you would in any other business.
So do your research and be sure to read and understand the terms of each program, especially regarding commission structure, payout, and product return rates. Each of these factors should be considered before deciding which program is the one for you.
When you do find one that suits your needs and you are confident about working online, you will discover that it is just as easy to work several affiliate programs at once as it is to do just one. And the more options you have the more you will make. Before you know it you will be working at home full time making money online.
The Pros and Cons of Affiliate Programs
The Pros and Cons of Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are a great idea for the owner of the product and for the affiliate who wants to earn some extra cash. The owner has a sales team that promotes and sells his or her product and doesn't have to pay anything out until a sale is generated. The affiliate has an existing product that can be sold and doesn't have to go out and create his or her own product.
The problem usually is that most affiliate don't have an existing website that they can drive potential customers to. Many affiliates think that it's just as simple as driving traffic to the product owner's website. That can be done using a URL that's unique to the affiliate. That's all well and good, however, that may not be the best way do develop business.
You see, when you drive traffic to the product owners web site, the owner is the one that gets the information about that prospective buyer. He can keep that info and market to them in the future. That means that for all the work the affiliate did to drive that traffic to the product owners site, all the affiliate gets for that is whatever commission was agreed upon for the sale. There's nothing wrong with that, but we all know that in order to build a business on-line and have it continue, you need a list of targeted prospects. If you're going to join an affiliate program, you might as well benefit as much as you can from it.
The owner didn't do a thing to get that information; the affiliate did the advertising, whatever form it was. It could have been pay-per-click, it could have been advertising in an ezine or classified ad, etc. What ever the affiliate did, it either cost him time or money, most likely both.
What's the answer? The best answer is to get your own lead capture page. A lead capture page is designed solely to get the prospect's information. After you get the information you can direct your prospect to the owner's site to buy whatever they're selling. Once you get the information of the prospect, you start building a list of targeted prospects that you can focus your marketing on in the future.
It may take a little time to develop a large list, but once you get a good list of prospects, you have a group who has demonstrated that they are interested in buying online or developing a business, or whatever it may be. A good list is gold. You have your target audience you can market to and it's free.
Affiliate programs can be great, but don't give away all of your leads to someone else. You did the work to get that prospect; you should be able to benefit from your effort. Is it worth the time building a list like that? It most certainly is. It may cost a little bit to have a lead capture page, but it's well worth the investment. It's definitely an investment in your future. If you want to be in the online marketing business for any length of time and you want to make a substantial income. You should consider this very carefully. Think about it, if you're are doing the work anyway, it makes sense that you should benefit from it.
There is a lot of money to be made in affiliate programs. Just be smart in your efforts. Don't give away all of your best resources.
Affiliate programs are a great idea for the owner of the product and for the affiliate who wants to earn some extra cash. The owner has a sales team that promotes and sells his or her product and doesn't have to pay anything out until a sale is generated. The affiliate has an existing product that can be sold and doesn't have to go out and create his or her own product.
The problem usually is that most affiliate don't have an existing website that they can drive potential customers to. Many affiliates think that it's just as simple as driving traffic to the product owner's website. That can be done using a URL that's unique to the affiliate. That's all well and good, however, that may not be the best way do develop business.
You see, when you drive traffic to the product owners web site, the owner is the one that gets the information about that prospective buyer. He can keep that info and market to them in the future. That means that for all the work the affiliate did to drive that traffic to the product owners site, all the affiliate gets for that is whatever commission was agreed upon for the sale. There's nothing wrong with that, but we all know that in order to build a business on-line and have it continue, you need a list of targeted prospects. If you're going to join an affiliate program, you might as well benefit as much as you can from it.
The owner didn't do a thing to get that information; the affiliate did the advertising, whatever form it was. It could have been pay-per-click, it could have been advertising in an ezine or classified ad, etc. What ever the affiliate did, it either cost him time or money, most likely both.
What's the answer? The best answer is to get your own lead capture page. A lead capture page is designed solely to get the prospect's information. After you get the information you can direct your prospect to the owner's site to buy whatever they're selling. Once you get the information of the prospect, you start building a list of targeted prospects that you can focus your marketing on in the future.
It may take a little time to develop a large list, but once you get a good list of prospects, you have a group who has demonstrated that they are interested in buying online or developing a business, or whatever it may be. A good list is gold. You have your target audience you can market to and it's free.
Affiliate programs can be great, but don't give away all of your leads to someone else. You did the work to get that prospect; you should be able to benefit from your effort. Is it worth the time building a list like that? It most certainly is. It may cost a little bit to have a lead capture page, but it's well worth the investment. It's definitely an investment in your future. If you want to be in the online marketing business for any length of time and you want to make a substantial income. You should consider this very carefully. Think about it, if you're are doing the work anyway, it makes sense that you should benefit from it.
There is a lot of money to be made in affiliate programs. Just be smart in your efforts. Don't give away all of your best resources.
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