Hi James,

"How did you find affiliates? Did you contact them direct or set up advertising for them to contact you?"

That's a very good question, we're now up and running really well with 100's of affiliates signed up and an average of 20 or so joining every week, so I'm now trying hard to think back six months to when we started and had none!

Here's what I did:
1. Put the program in place and made sure it was *very* attractive (I.e paid high commissions and offered good support).

2. Advertised the program in the top affiliate directories (this was taken care of for free by the company we purchased the tracking software from).

3. Used the search engines

4. Lots of telesales & networking!

Now, most of our affiliates arrive from:
1. Telesales/networking.
2. Word of mouth (viral marketing)
3. Many of our *customers* have joined the program - they like the service so much they wish to promote it and make something at the same time

We also have in place a 2 tier program, which means many of our affiliates endorse it to their friends/colleagues.

I am in regular/constant contact with the majority of our resellers (those doing the business) and have done some fantastic deals with some of them & even managed to reciprocate a couple of times by passing business their way. Bear in mind that the resellers we now have on board range from students trying to earn an extra buck to billion dollar a year corporations (these are via networking).

Regardless of which approach you take, do your research and make sure you get your offering correct.

The only thing I have against the networks is - how hard do they actually promote your program? Will you be just another one amongst 100's or 1000's? Perhaps I am a control freak and at some point I may have to let go a little but for now I prefer it this way and enjoy developing the relationships.

I'm around at any time if you want to chat further, email me direct at anthony @ depositit.com and I'll forward you my details etc.

Regards,

Anthony