If you sell your own products and services on the internet, you should know that one of the most popular forms of online promotion is to host your own affiliate program. This way you have others promote your products and services and you pay them a commission for their work.

If you wish to start and run a successful affiliate program, here is an overview of four important components you must have in place.

I. Affiliate Software for tracking hits and commissions.

There are many different affiliate software packages from which you can choose. Furthermore, you can either choose to manage the software yourself or pay a company such as Clickbank or Clicktrade to manage your affiliate software for you.

If you choose to manage the software yourself, you should look for software that is powerful. By that I mean it must be able to manage thousands of affiliates and track their hits and sales reliably, generate affiliate stats for any date either since a person became an affiliate or since the programs inception and also it should have an efficient and easy to administer control panel. The software should also be user friendly, and provide instant email notification of sales and associate signups for both you and your affiliates.

II. You must have a fantastic affiliate support area.

It is not enough to have a few banners and classified ads. You must provide as much help as possible for your associates if you want them to be successful. Remember, their success is your success. Make their job as easy as possible and motivate them the best you can. Therefore, you should have tested and proven endorsements, testimonials, sig files, ezine ads, and other unique tools and techniques. You must also make yourself available, either through email or the phone, to help your affiliates implement these tools and to answer any questions they may have.

III. You must test several different promotional campaigns to determine their effectiveness.

It is imperative whether you run your own or participate in an affiliate program. You must be able to determine what methods work best in a particular medium. For instance, which ezine ads work best and in what ezine; which banner ads produce the greatest clickthrus and from which sites or banner exchanges; and where on your website is the most effective spot to include a testimonial.

This will allow you to eliminate the campaigns that do not work and continue on with the effective ones. This decreases your time to profit a thousandfold since both you and your affiliates will know exactly what should be done to maximize profits.

IV. A system of getting out payments to your affiliates on time and on a regular basis.

While this may sound like an obvious or even unimportant point, it is amazing how many affiliate programs have failed or floundered because of late or non-existant payments. Affiliates, while considered independent contractors are still working for you and deserve to be paid for their efforts.

Some affiliate programs, have implemented unique payment procedures to get affiliates their commission checks on a timely basis. Some of these procedures include: online electronic payment services such as x.com or paypal.com, direct bank deposits and checks by fax.

If you can solidify your payment procedures from the start, you will save yourself an administrative headache and more importantly, keep your affiliates happy and working to promote your program.

If you have the four pieces of this puzzle in place before you roll out your affiliate program, you can use the power of the internet to create an army of loyal resellers who will drive traffic to your site in droves and cause your bank account to increase exponentially!

4 Keys To Running A Successful Affiliate Program