If you're launching a new web venture, why on earth would you want to affiliate program at the same time? Here's 7 reasons why you should keep an affiliate program on the back burner ... and a few reasons why you might start it prematurely:

1. Launching a new product or web venture takes a lot of focus and effort. If you're starting to consider an affiliate program at the same time this will take away from your focus. Most affiliate programs take at least 1 month to get rolling - and that's for a site that's already making sales. Do you really want this distraction?
2. Affiliates want to see a track record before they invest their time and money into sending you traffic. Why should they bother if you're just launching?
3. Affiliates want to know the expected conversion rate. If you're just launching you probably don't know it either. Only by waiting and measuring your traffic and sales can you come up with enough objective data to "sell" your program to affiliates.
   
4. You probably don't know where the sweet spot of your market is yet, although you might have a good idea of where you want to start. So most likely you don't know the ideal profile of the super affiliates you want to recruit.
5. You might have some big strategic partners who are pushing you to launch an affiliate program. You can maybe put in place a simple tracking system for these big JV partners, and keep it exclusive/invitation only, without needing to launch a full blown affiliate program.

Reasons you might want to launch an affiliate program at the same time as your main launch:

• You are in the IM (Internet Marketing) niche, where everyone is a potential customer AND affiliate at the same time, so recruiting is easier.
• You are doing a big IM launch, which is dependent on many JV partners with big lists, and you need a powerful tracking system and probably someone to manage the partners before, during, and after the launch.
• Your product or service is highly dependent or tied into some sort of viral/referral traffic scheme.
  

If you're not in the IM niche and not doing a big bang type of launch with lots of JV partners, then hold off on launching an affiliate program.

Make some sales on your own first. By waiting, you'll know your market better, be better prepared to pull in smarter affiliates when you're ready, and in the meantime pay yourself 100% commission:)

--- (Edited on 11/27/2007 9:07 pm [GMT-0600] by Peter) ---