So where do you find them?

Here are a few idea to get your started.

1. Google

Type in searches around your product or service and look at the first page or first two pages of results for each term. Look for blogs, info sites, comparison tables and the like. These guys will be more open to becoming an affiliate.

Look for specific industry Blogs and review sites too…

[Keyword] + Blog
[Keyword] + Review
Top 10 [Keyword]

All of these will bring up interesting results.

Create a Google Drive Spreadsheet and make sure you add the URL, the term you used to find the site, their name if you can find it on the site, and their contact details be in a email or contact form.

Once you have done this with around 20 or 30 keywords — you will find a ton of possible sites to approach.

The do the same on Bing. Yeah I know WTF is Bing. Well its the little site Microsoft have that search display results too. The beauty with Bing is that the traffic from bing is much better quality and converts much better than Google… Shhhhh!!!!

2. LinkedIn

Yeah I know… Use the search function to look for industry people and also people that actually have the word affiliate in their profile title or headline. You will be surprised.

Also look under the content filter for say the last 3 months too as this might highlight people looking for particular types of programmes.

Connect with them. Make sure you have your affiliate programme information on your profile. Simply add a file on SlideShare or upload a PDF to your profile.

If they have asked about a programme, comment on the thread that you can help and BOOM.

3. Your site

If you don’t have a page on your site for affiliates then build one… Your site could be one of the best places to pick up affiliates. I would also suggest on this page you tell people they cant buy through their own links. Cheap bastards….

That normally switches off bargain hunters that will only ever send you one sale — their own.

4. Promotion

You could actually do some paid promotion for your affiliate programme and why not. Facebook ads are pretty cheap these days, you could spend a few pounds a day promoting your programme and driving them into the new page you built above.

5. Your Customers

I have left this once last as there are a number of things to say here..

Not all customers will make good affiliates — the key we are after is good affiliates. We are not looking for simply adding a thousand affiliates, we want affiliates that can promote and drive traffic. So you want raving fans that have their own sites and ways to drive traffic.

Now you could tell everyone you have a programme but don’t just accept people because they are a customer (Some we can put in our refer a friend programme).

Some customers will not want to be paid to refer people to you. It is more important op them about the connection and endorsement. They don’t want to be seen to be pushing every tom dick and harry due to revenue.

I get that. We will get to different ways to handle that and still maximise their enthusiasm for promoting you.