Affiliate Fundraising 101

Through an affiliate program a group is to be paid to promote a merchant's products from their website. Every sales transaction made at a merchant's site that was referred from the fundraising group's web site earns them a flat rate or a percentage of the sale.

One of the world's most famous affiliate programs is Amazon.com. Over 400,000 people world wide promote Amazon's books through their web sites and Amazon pays them a percentage commission on every sale made from someone who clicked from their site.

Fundraising groups have a distinctive advantage because they can recommend products to their supportergive them an immediate base of web traffic.

The first step for any group is to sign up with a trusted third party affiliate network such as Commission Junction (www.cj.com). Commission Junction provides access to hundreds of merchants who participate in affiliate programs. The affiliate network also provides tracking of sales referrals and distributes payments.

Advantages of affiliate programs over traditional fundraising means are numerous:

• There is No door-to-door selling
• Campaigns can be run from a computer
• No inventory to purchase and distribute; the merchant takes care of the entire transaction from processing the online transaction to shipping the inventory directly to the customer
• Groups can track the success of the campaign online and in real time

• Commission percentages can be quite low
• Website will need a steady amount of traffic to be profitable
• There is usually a minimum to be earned before payment is made (usually starts around $25.00)
• Difficult to track how well individual members are doing at fundraising

Tips to run an effective affiliate fundraising campaign:

• Promote products that compliment your group. For example a soccer team could be successful linking to soccer jerseys)
• Promote using word of mouth (let your supporters know that this is a new way they can support your group)
• Put together a professionally designed web site with great content and your visitors will want to come back
• Don't just use the banners, the affiliate program provides, make sure to use text links as well and endorse or review the products you are promoting.
• Partner with trusted third party providers such as Commission Junction.