The Opportunity
Would you be interested in expanding your campaign team to include hundreds of internet-marketing freelancers? How about if your internet campaigners would agree to be compensated based entirely on performance?
By setting up an Affiliate Program, you can get access to hundreds or thousands of freelance internet-marketers who are willing to be paid only when a referred lead completes the call-to-action you specify, such as signing an online petition or registering for a mailing list.
These internet marketers are known as "Affiliates," or more correctly, "Publishers." The Publishers will place your advertising on their websites and eNewsletters. To earn compensation, Publishers hope that their readers will click-thru on your advertising and then complete the desired action at your website.
Enormous Increase in Qualified Leads
With hundreds or thousands of freelance Publishers working on your behalf, an Affiliate Program can attract a huge influx of qualified leads to your website, with a minimal amount of internal staffing.
Early adopter non-profit organizations are using Publishers to bring in thousands of new visitors to their websites each month. As the popularity of Affiliate Programs grows amongst non-profits, I wouldn't be surprised if non-profits reach the traffic levels already generated by Publishers working on behalf of many of the larger for-profit websites.
But the great attraction of Affiliate Programs isn't just the potential surge in website traffic...
Risk Transfer
Affiliate Programs offer less performance-risk than many other types of campaign investments, due to the commonly-accepted compensation practice known as Pay for Performance. As a result, you will only need to pay your Affiliate Publishers when your objective is met (such as when a referred-lead is convinced to send your campaign protest letter to their local government official).
The financial burden of attracting, referring, and converting the lead rests entirely on the Publishers that advertise your take-action webpage. If these Publisher Affiliates aren't successful in meeting your objective, you pay nothing. If they are successful, you meet your goals. Either way, the Publishers absorb your advertising risk (except for the Affiliate Program's set-up costs).
First-Mover Advantage
Internet Affiliate Programs are uncharted territory for most non-profit organizations. Leveraging Affiliates is promising but unproven for advocacy campaigns. If you're willing to risk set-up costs to enroll in an Affiliate Network and minimum monthly commission payments, you will likely get first mover advantage for your issue.
Instant Access to Internet Marketing Skills
Affiliate Programs are particularly useful for non-profit organizations that don't employ sufficient staff with advanced internet-marketing skills or for those non-profits that want to be guaranteed a fixed return on their campaign-advertising investment. If you have access to campaign funding, but few staff or volunteers with the appropriate skills, an Affiliate Program may be your only path to enormous website traffic.
