If you run an affiliate program, do you reward your affiliates for a job well done? If not, you should start and immediately. These programs rely on the hard work and determination of affiliates to be successful. You may be surprised how much motivation rewards can provide.

Rewards are a form of inspiration. You have to inspire your affiliates. Affiliates are more likely to advertise their websites with your links when they have additional incentives for doing so. You are indirectly telling them it is really worth their time and endeavor.

Not only does rewarding your affiliates improve their drive and determination, but it should lead to more sales for you. Affiliates will work harder to push your products into the market. This means more sales for you. It is the same with retail store affiliate programs. Whether you sell single product or one thousand, you must notice an increase in sales after putting a rewards program in place.

Now that you know the benefits of rewarding your affiliates, what type of rewards can you give? Your options are unlimited. With that said, try to keep it related to your affiliate program. For example, reward top earning affiliates with commission increases. Reward all of your affiliates with a temporary increase in commission percentages during the holidays. Give away some of your top selling products or electronic devices, like a new laptop.

It is best to reward your affiliate with prizes. This is a given, as people love free stuff. With that said, don’t discount a little bit of recognition. Do you send out monthly newsletters to your affiliates or have an online message forum? If so, highlight top earning affiliates or the most improved ones. Better yet, make it into a learning experience. Interview that affiliate or provide links to their websites or sales pages. Let your underperformers see what it takes to be a successful, well-paid partner.

The simplest way to reward an affiliate for a job well done is to send them a personal message. Did you notice that an affiliate helped to assist in a large sale, like a $2,000 television set? Send them a quick congratulatory message and thank them for participating in your program. People want to be recognized and congratulated. A boss shakes the hand of a well-performing employee in the traditional workplace, so try to do the same. Showing appreciation is a very simple yet effective way to improve moral and keep good performing affiliates on board.

As you can see, there are many ways to reward your affiliates. If you aren’t doing so now, give it a try. Financial compensation or prizes always do the trick. As previously mentioned, people like free stuff and your affiliates feel the same way. As for sending a congratulatory message or featuring a notable affiliate, you open the lines of communication. This is important when running a successful affiliate program; you and your affiliates must work together as a team.

Affiliates Alert is a software product that is a dream come true for those of us who buy or sell e-books from ClickBank. Like ClickBank’s Marketplace search engine, you can use it to identify products that can make you money.

Affiliates Alert not only allows you to search by keyword (which the Clickbank marketplace does not allow you to do) in both title and description, it also displays (and allows a search by) the product ranking within both a main and sub-category.

Once you’ve found your matching titles, Affiliates Alert lets you see important ranking information on each e-book, in other words how far up on the best seller list it is, with #1 being best. Not only that, Affiliates Alert gives the ranking history since inception (either of the e-book’s availability or when Affiliates Alert was born in September 2003), which allows you to see a trend. If the trend is downward, it indicates a problem. If the trend is upward, it indicates a potential rising star.

If you’re an affiliate marketer, you might be able to use this tool to catch the rising stars before the masses, or at least to avoid the products that are dropping, i.e. past their primes.

So, what’s Affiliates Alert cost? Your choice: from zero, nada, zilch for the standard version (which is very useful and perfectly fine for 70-90% of all users), to under $10 per month for the professional version. So why would you pay $9.99 per month if you could have it for free?

3 reasons:

1) The professional version of Affiliates Alert is for the professional or aspiring affiliate marketer. The standard edition is on a 7-day delay. Those paying the money see new rankings and new products added to the list in 24 hours or less, and get first crack at the “rising stars” and fresh products. Those using the standard version don’t see the new information until it’s a week old.

2) There are also advanced search options not available in the free version.

3) Perhaps the most important one: To the affiliate marketer, the professional version will provide you with your personal affiliate link to each product, something that is often hidden from access at the merchant’s site.

My recommendation: Affiliates Alert is a no-brainer, and a tool anyone that ever buys, sells, or recommends e-books should have in their arsenal. Pick up the free version and use it for as long as you want. It’s great information, and if you feel a need to upgrade to the paid version in a week, in a month, in a year, you can do so within the package itself whenever you feel so inclined. The author says more than 70% of users are using the standard version. I suspect that number is higher, and at the price of zero, nada, zilch, those people are getting a heck of a deal!

If you decide to upgrade later, just click on the link inside Affiliate Alert as you run it. I guarantee you’ll enjoy this new software tool!