Every company needs to find ways to grow revenue, and this applies to publishers and affiliates as well. Standing still doesn’t work: offers can become stale, and creatives constantly need to be refreshed. As a result, finding new vendors and merchants to work with is a powerful growth strategy for publishers. In this article we take a closer look at nine of the best ways to find new business opportunities that really work.

  1. According to the AffStat 2016 survey, 25% of affiliates find out about new programs by searching the information on the merchant’s website.
    This is one of the most used methods to find new partners. However, this method implies that you already have a research with the vendors from your industry or the niche you would like to promote. You should also be prepared to manage denial emails and I recommend you to write back to those vendors that send you a denial email to ask for more details or what you could do to get approved (provide additional info or create a new section on your website, etc.).
    Usually you will find the program details listed under “Partners” or “Affiliates” pages, however not all vendors have an affiliate program page on their website or some may have added it under different sections such as: “Tools”, “About Us”, “Contact”, etc. Anyway, almost all vendors have at least a contact form on their website, so do not hesitate to write them to ask about affiliation opportunities.
  2. Approximately 19% of affiliates find out about new programs through searches on Google, Yahoo, etc. This is the second most used method to find new business opportunities. For this, you will need to prepare and analyze keywords relevant for your industry and perform different searches considering possible language barriers, most used search engines for your desired market, etc.
  3. The study showed that 18% of affiliates find out about new programs to promote through Affiliate Networks. This is because networks are a great resource to use to find new opportunities. Depending on your business particularities, you can work with general networks or focus on niche networks to reach the right partners for your traffic.
  4. Advanced users find new business during conferences and events (9%).
    Attending industry events can be very productive as you can learn new skills, meet with existing partners and find new partners at the same time. There are plenty of industry events you can attend depending on your geographical focus. Here is a list to review some of them.I
  5. f your website has good traffic and high rankings, chances are that Affiliate Managers will reach out to you directly to invite you to join their program. This happened to 9% of the affiliates who responded to the AffStat 2016 survey. If you do not own a website and use other methods to promote, then the same applies to that channel. Just make sure you have a contact address listed for new opportunities.
  6. If you are an experienced affiliate marketer, you already know a few people in the industry and you are familiar with the importance of the word of mouth to find new vendors – 7% of affiliates find new opportunities using this method and they are usually senior affiliates.
  7. 6% of affiliates study competitors’ websites to identify new business and at the same time monitor their portfolios. This method is usually used by experienced and master affiliates. It is very important to know your competitors before analyzing their portfolio. Here are three dimensions to identify your competitors: a) they use similar promotional methods, b) similar audience targeted, c) similar products promoted.
  8. In addition to the point above, you can extend this to searching on other affiliate websites as 4% of new businesses can be identified this way. You can use below criteria to do this: a) affiliates that promote products and services from your niche, b) affiliates using different promo methods than yours, c) similar audience targeted.
  9. Affiliate Managers or Network Managers always struggle to find new partners like yourself, therefore it may be a good idea to follow their websites or other communication channels as 3% of affiliates found out about opportunities this way.

It is important to analyze your existing new business channels and identify the best ways to grow your affiliate business. Make sure you add any missing channels to your new business strategy to meet your goals and develop your relationships with your affiliate managers and network managers as this way you can find out about new opportunities faster.

About Avangate Affiliate Network
Avangate Affiliates Network is the 1st CPS Network Worldwide for Software and Digital Goods in mThink’s 2015, 2016, 2017 Blue Book surveys. With over 22,000 products in its catalogue and having award-winning vendors as partners, the network has a proven track record of top-quality services.