Every company, online and offline, should have a business plan, a marketing strategy plan, a continigincies plan, and so on and so on.  When outlining an online company’s marketing plan, an Affiliate Program should always be addressed.  I don’t believe that an Affiliate Program will necessarily work for every company.

There are a number of reasons that the implementation of an Affiliate Program isn’t the right move for certain companies.  Financial restrictions, industry restrictions, lack of manpower, technology and geographical restrictions.  If a company really wanted to, they could get around all of these issues, but would the program be successful based on this knowledge.  I don’t think so.

Financial restictions could include companies who have an already thin profit margin and just can’t spare to pass off anymore potential profit or a company that doesn’t have the technological capacity and doesn’t have enough money to outsource or hire an Affiliate Manager.  Other technological setbacks include not having an e-commerce website (not including companies who search for Leads).  Industry restrictions include most companies in the import, export, and manufacturing areas of business.  Although, perhaps that would be an innovative area of Affiliate Marketing with huge, unrealized potential.

It is my opinion that an Affiliate Program would be a nice addition to any e-commerce or retail site that has products to offer online or who is looking to collect leads.  If costs are the only issue, you can keep costs down by developing an in-house Affiliate Program setting up commission levels that won’t sink your company’s bottom line.  If manpower is an issue, but money isn’t … then you should outsource the work to a seasoned Affiliate Manager (OutSourced Program Managers are great because the can work remotely). 

Companies have very little to lose by implementing an Affiliate Program, and they could see huge potential benefits and increasing revenues.  And that is what it is all about, more money!