How Affiliate Programs Can Gain The Trust of Affiliates

Last week, one member in our forums posed the question, “Is there a way to convince people that an In-House program is legit?s there a way to convince people that an In-House program is legit?” Many of you weighed in, mentioning the attributes that makes a program worthwhile for an affiliate to partner with them.
Here’s what you had to say:
Transparency
“Be transparent, be available and quick to respond to issues, always pay on time and have statistics that work.” – Caseym
Affiliate marketers want to do business with programs that are transparent. When affiliates can see everything that is going on – from clicks to conversions – it makes them feel much better about the program and what it has to offer.
Show a Long Term Plan
“It won’t happen overnight so think long haul.” – fonzi
Time and time again, affiliate programs pop up out of nowhere, are available for several months, and then disappear without notice. As you can imagine, this is one of the biggest trust related issues for affiliates.
If an affiliate cannot trust that the program is going to be around for the long term, they are not going to risk sending traffic. Not only could the program dry up at anytime, but if this does happen the chance of collecting payment is not very good.

Get Recommendations
“Believe it or not an extremely modern and fancy website will at least make me, give you the benefit of the doubt. The rest will follow depending on the performance and the statistics. After all, every affiliate working with you will be asking ‘What’s in it for me?’ ‘Why should I drop brand X and promote your brand Y’ 50% commission on itself isn’t enough, in fact seems too high.” -xecutable
One of the biggest issues facing new affiliate programs is getting the first few affiliate marketers onboard. This is the classic “chicken and egg” problem. New programs can do themselves a big favor by working with a small group of affiliates to start. By offering higher payouts, for example, it is easier to lure successful affiliates to a new program.
Once things are up and running, these affiliates can give recommendations to their network in hope of growth related to word of mouth referrals.
Be Visible in the Industry
“Visit the affiliate forums, be helpful, be friendly and eventually people will begin to trust you and will sign up… Something else you can do is go to igaming affiliate conferences and meet people face to face. Not only will you pick up some affiliates, you’ll also learn how to make your program better.” – fonzi
Trusting a company without a face is something that most affiliates avoid. New programs can help themselves a great deal by becoming as visible as possible throughout the industry. This includes everything from taking part in industry discussions to attending trade shows.
Customer Service Counts
“The quality of your tips will determine whether customers stay with you. Correspondingly, the amount of affiliate revenue earned will determine whether they will continue to sell and promote you.” – rmeeuwsen
If an affiliate program does not offer customer service upfront, affiliates will not trust that they can get answers when it really counts. It is important to offer timely customer service via multiple methods including but not limited to email and phone. If an affiliate cannot talk to a live body they are probably going to search for another program.