Using a whitepaper to support your affiliate recruiting efforts

Setting yourself apart can be a big job for when recruiting affiliates, whitepapers can act as a supporting document for your emails, advertisements and other listings. There was an interesting article on Copyblogger and how whitepapers can make you filthy rich, not sure about that, but the bottom line is that it presents a level of professionalism, preparedness and a tool for affiliates to determine where to plug YOUR program into their business.

Wikipedia states: A white paper is a report or guide that often addresses problems and how to solve them. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions. They are used in politics and in businesses.

What questions do affiliates have and need answers to in order to join your affiliate program?

  • Is the commission plan lucrative?
  • Conversion rate?
  • Coupons and Datafeed tools? - Include sample coupons and datafeed schema’s
  • Who else is successful with your program? - Get a testimonial or 2 from your top affiliates.
  • What 3rd party tools are you associate with? Goldencan, Feedshare, Popshops?
  • What tradeshows do you attend?
  • Policies (summary)
  • Creative & Linking options
  • Network options?
  • And so on…

I can think of a million things to include in a whitepaper for your affiliate program, roll all of this together with a pretty layout and PDF it. Host it and link to it in your forum signatures, directory listings, email signatures, affiliate network profiles and more. You can leverage this tool in your PPC affiliate recruiting campaigns, ad campaigns and your next Revenue Magazine Ad!

Posted by Ian

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Comments

One Response to “Using a whitepaper to support your affiliate recruiting efforts”

  1. John & Theresa Bastone on July 19th, 2008 8:46 am

    Ian, this is an EXCELLENT idea! White papers “put your business out there” and lends credibility to the intgerity of your business! Imagine providing the transparency and answering questions via a white paper, so that people who view have a better idea of what you’re all about! Getting the facts out there in plain simple language, and providing ease of use is one sure way to build your business, and the white paper does that for you! Great info!

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