How to find targeted affiliates

web-content-king · #1 (**permalink**) 03-13-2005, 03:30 AM

I'm going to be finally launching my affiliate program in the next few days for my business, which is website content and marketing for small-medium business websites. I am still not sure how to find the highly targeted small group of affiliates I want to start out with while the program gets its legs. Basically, I think that web designers, graphic designers, and possibly web hosts would be the obvious place to start. Ideally, I want to communicate with the affiliates directly, so that I can get a quick sense of what needs to be done. I think that if I just start posting to directories I will get a large group of anonymous people most of whom will likely not even end up posting my links on their sites.

Any ideas on how to find people like that? Is there an affiliate forum that's more one-on-one? I already have a few colleagues lined up, but I'm thinking I'll need about 20-30 affiliates to make a real go of it.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Linda Buquet · #2 (**permalink**) 03-13-2005, 05:52 PM

Many affiliate forums allow a new program announcement.
You can advertise it at Sitepoint for free in the marketplace and a 9.95 ad at Geekvillage is money well spent.

web-content-king · #3 (**permalink**) 03-13-2005, 11:15 PM

What would be the best way of finding people who are open to establishing more one-on-one communication? As I said, I think those directories will get me a lot of anonymous applications that won't amount to much. To start out with, I don't want 100s of affiliate applications that are mostly anonymous, I want people I can get feedback from and can work with to make the program a success (e.g., suggestions for affiliate content & customized landing pages, figuring out whether banners are a good route to go). If I post a special request for people who are looking more for a partnership, would that work on those directories?

MandyHaga · #4 (**permalink**) 03-15-2005, 01:26 PM

The best advice I could give is to search the web for those you want to partner with. When you find ideal sites, call or email them directly with your offer of partnership. This is likely to get more personal interaction than directory submissions. However, you need to be very careful when emailing potential partners. Make sure you visit their site. Calling for permission to email may be a good idea, but at least visit the site first. When preparing the email, target the subject line to the reason for your message (leaving out the words "deal", "offer" or "link exchange") and keep it concise.