I hope you will find the below information of help, and please do not hesitate to leave your feedback about the Guide in the comments area under this post.

Online Guide to Affiliate Marketing

Introductory Considerations

• What is affiliate marketing?
• How do I choose the payment model?
• How much will starting an affiliate program cost me?
• What percentage of sales can an affiliate program bring in?
• Do affiliates get commission on canceled orders?
• Can a shopper and have cookies from different affiliates?
• Will the affiliate program help my SEO as a form of link building?

Setting an Affiliate Program Up

• How to calculate the affiliate commission rate?
• Is it true that affiliates are attracted only by high commissions?
• What should I set the cookie life at? [see also this study]
• Where can I get a sample affiliate program agreement or TOS? [see also this info]
• How to construct a good affiliate program description?
• How do I word the text of the affiliate approval email?
• How do I word the text of the denial email?
• What affiliate program software should I consider? [and a word about free solutions]
• What outsourced affiliate payment solutions exist out there?
• Where can I compare American affiliate networks? [see also this compilation]
• Which affiliate network has more affiliates?
• What about running my program on multiple networks?
• Will the affiliate network also manage my program?
• What are the responsibilities of affiliate program managers?
• What are OPMs and how much do their services cost?

Banners, Creatives, Data Feeds

• What size banners should an affiliate program have?
• What size should the affiliate banner files be?
• What mistakes should I avoid while creating affiliate banners?
• What are good examples of affiliate banners?
• Why may an affiliate need my product feed (or data feed)?
• What are the most common problems affiliates have with advertisers’ feeds?

When the Affiliate Program is Live

• What Key Performance Indicators speak of a manager’s performance?
• What methods of communication with affiliates should I emply?
• How should an affiliate newsletter look?
• How frequently should I communicate through the newsletter?
• How to recruit affiliates into my affiliate program? [see also this post]
• What about affiliate program directories? Should I add my program to them?
• What are super affiliates? [read also this article]
• Should I consider affiliates who charge placement fees?
• Should I block affiliates from certain countries?
• Is using automatic decline of affiliate applications a good option?
• What is a good affiliate program conversion rate?
• What affiliate marketing conferences can I attend?
• What do affiliates especially dislike?
• Why would an affiliate choose one program over another?
• Should I offer coupons through affiliates? [see also the coupon mistakes to avoid]
• What are incentive/loyalty affiliates and are they right for my program?
• What is cookie stuffing?
• What are parasitic affiliates? [see also my posts here]
• Who are trademark poachers?
• How do I motivate affiliates?
• How not to motivate affiliates? [read also this article]
• What common affiliate program management mistakes should we avoid? [see also this presentation]