New Platform Launch: Affiliate Programs.

byCarson

2.4M followers

Updated 4 months ago

After almost 2 years of development, we have officially launched the Affiliate Program platform here at Wealthy Affiliate. This is something that we have wanted for some time now and we are excited to finally make it available for you to use!

Conventionally it has been difficult to find affiliate programs. They are spread out everywhere on the Internet and to find affiliate programs you typically had to do a Google search, or rely on searching through multiple affiliate networks to find a program that works for you.

We wanted to change that. So we set out to create an environment that would allow affiliates to search and find relevant affiliate programs, to give them a medium to communicate feedback or reviews about particular affiliate programs they are involved with, and to follow and manage affiliate their list of programs they are interested in, or involved with in one place.

Wealthy Affiliate is most comprehensive platform for educating and equipping affiliate marketers for success online, but the "affiliate program" element has been completely segregated from the plaform & community here. Until today.

Introducing the Affiliate Programs Platform.

We are excited to announce the Affiliate Programs platform here within WA. You will see a brand new menu item within the side menu labeled "Affiliate Programs", this is where you are going to access the brand new platform and where you will be able to search, find and manage your affiliate programs moving forward.

Here is the direct link to the platform here:

==> Access the Affiliate Program Platform

This has been a brainchild of ours for many years. We have never seen an affiliate search tool that was useful, or one that actually had decent quality affiliate programs within them. Our focus with this platform is going to be to reward high quality and actively managed programs, and to limit exposure to programs that are lower quality or that don't have active support behind them.

There are close to 1.8 million aspiring and successful affiliate marketers that have joined WA since 2005, and these numbers are growing at a faster rate than ever. We want to provide affiliates with every opportunity possible, while maximizing efficiency in every aspect of their business.

Researching and managing your affiliate programs that you are part of has never been easier, and as this platform evolves I think you are going to be really excited to see what new opportunities this will represent for you as an affiliate marketer.

The Search Element.

The search aspect has been one of our core focuses, as we want to help users find affiliate programs with efficiency, but also be able to do so based on filters and keywords that meet their search criteria. You are going to be able to search programs based on a number of different filters.

• Country Availability (Is this available to you as an affilaite in your country)
• Payout Options
• Auto Approval (of Commissions)
• Rating
• Commission %/$
• Network Fee

You can manage these by clicking the Filter tab, as shown below.

As for your actual search, you can search what you like. If you wanted to search for "golf" related affiliate programs, you most definitely could.

If you want, you can also organize and search by categories only. If you click the "All" with down arrow to the left of the search bar, you will be able to filter and show only programs within certain categories.

These are categories that will evolve over time as there are more affiliate programs added, currently there are close to 10,000 affiliate programs included within the search.

Following & Managing Your Programs

One of the exciting elements within the platform is that you are going to be able to follow affilaite programs, and organize them in any way that meets your purposes. Often times as you build out your authority websites, you will partner with many affiliate programs, across many categories.

You are going to be able to manage all of your affiliate programs from within the platform and categorize how you see fit. You can also follow programs, so when there are discussions, reviews or updates related to that particular program, you are going to be notified about them.

These features are going to keep your affiliate campaigns much more organized, and also keep you in the "know" with the respective affiliate programs you choose to follow.

To follow a program, you simply click the Follow Button, or the STAR icon in the top right corner of any listing.

Upon clicking, you will have the option to either organize the program into a "No Category" group, choose an existing category for the group, or create a brand new category.

Upon doing this, you will be able to access all of your store affiliate programs by clicking the STAR icon within the search bar (as shown below).

You could also use the Follow feature to store future ideas. There are a lot of programs available within the search, so as you are navigating you are likely going to come up with potential niche or promotional ideas for future campaigns as well.

We recommend that you follow all the programs that you are affiliated with and that interest you.

The Communcation Element.

Affiliates have the ability to communicate directly with merchants, or at the very least, discuss affiliate programs in a very centralized manner. This includes sharing experiences, asking questions, and also offering reviews of products & services that you have experience with.

As with all the platforms at WA, the community and interaction components were a big part of the forethought when mapping out the Affiliate Programs environment. You are going to be able to discuss particular affiliate programs, and also offer help to others if you know the answers to questions.

You can ask a question, offer help to a question, or chime in on any discussion you choose within the details of a particular affiliate program. Below the review component, you will see a discussion thread.

There is a good chance that there are 100's of people that have experience with just about every affiliate program in the world that are members here of the community, so it is a great opportunity to offer feedback based on your experiences within a given program/network, and to also offer your help where you can.

If you have questions, ask them. These questions are handled in the same way as all communication here within Wealthy Affiliate and your question will get exposure.

And if you have a positive/not-so-positive review you would like to leave about an affiliate program, you can do that as well. Within a particular affiliate programs details page, you will see a review section where you can offer feedback.

That will help fellow affiliate marketers determine the quality of the program, and it will also help affiliate program managers to see the overall feedback that folks have and why. If it is good, they know they are doing something right and can keep doing what they are doing, if there is negative feedback as with any platform, they can work to improve their ratings.

The Merchants Now Have a Playing Field.

The companies that you work with, are going to have a stake in this platform moving forward. Affiliate Managers and company owners are going to be able to manage their affiliate programs here within WA, and are also going to have a direct platform to communicate with you as an affiliate (and field your questions about their program).

Look for many future updates that will connect Affilaites and Merchants, with this first version had to establish the core search and management technology. Once we refine and polish the initial framework, we are going to be iteratively advancing this platform as a "home" for affiliate program managers to work directly with their affiliates.

This is another great reason to follow Affiliate Programs as you are interested in them. This will allow you to receive updates moving forward as affiliate managers emerge within the platform,. You are going to be able to communicate directly with them and get "niche specific" help and insider information about particular programs, promotional strategies, and be privy to launches and time sensitive offers/opportunities.

The True Opportunity Will Be Revealed

As I indicated before as with any platform we roll out here at Wealthy Affiliate, there are always ideas for innovations and evolution. We have a year of updates already slated for this platform that will continue to evolve it in a way that has never been seen in our industry.

Affiliate Programs are going to grow over time, the technology and the ability for affiliate programs/managers to communicate will continue to improve, the "resources" available to you as an affiliate across various programs and niches will evolve, and the help and connectivity with active affiliate managers that take a stake in their programs is going to be a core focus of this program moving forward.

You (the members of WA) are our focus, as is the case with any platform we develop. We created the Affiliate Programs for you and to make your life more efficient as an affiliate marketer and the subsequent evolution of this platform and technology will have that very ideology at it's core.

That leads me to another aspect of this platform that we are excited about, and one that has been missing from the affiliate marketing industry for far too long. Transparency.

There Has Never Been This Level of Transparency

The unfortunate reality in this industry is that there conventionally hasn't been much transparency between the "affiliate" and the "merchant" that they are working with (and this goes both ways). Often times there isn't even a dedicated affiliate manager for even some of the biggest billion dollar companies, which is mind baffling in this day and age.

We are going to be working to bridge this gap as this platform evolves, and connect affiliates to the appropriate stakeholders that can field questions about particular affiliate programs and their subset of products, but also be able to get dedicated help from affiliate managers and in some cases, the company owners (as is the case with many "indie" affiliate programs, including our affiliate program here at WA).

All successful affiliate programs understand that affiliates are the bread and butter of their online business and their overall reach, and our focus is going to be getting you the best access directly to these merchants in a safe and easy to use environment here at WA. Also for merchants, it is a very awkward process to train, inform, manage and incubate a successful affiliate marketing team. That is going to be part of the evolution and we are so excited for future updates to this platform.

The Evolution of this Platform. Where We See This Going.

I want to be clear. This is "WA Affiliate Programs 1.0", and it is an awesome platform that we have put a lot of time and energy into (1,000's of hours, and 2 years of development).

However, we are not stopping here.

As with anything we do, we will be constantly and iteratively improving this platform. We already have 12-18 months of powerful advancements slated for this environment which is truly going to advance the Affiliate Program/Affiliate relationship, communication and connectivity to levels this industry has yet to see.

This is going to be a good thing for both merchants and affiliates. More affiliates with more access to merchants is going to mean more revenue for these companies, many of them being Fortune 500 enterprises. Exciting times ahead.

Now we want YOUR feedback. Have a look around the new Affiliate Program, let us know what you think. We have heard some of the early stage feedback and it is been overwhelmingly positive, and that is exciting to hear. Would love to hear your comments, feedback, suggestions, and of course if there are any bugs or is anything you don't understand, leave those as well.

Here's to your affiliate SUCCESS in 2019 and beyond. ;)