Affiliate Resources; make sure you have the affiliate resources you need to run your affiliate marketing program.

Running an affiliate program takes resources- make sure that you have the necessary time and resources. You will need to create specialist creative for affiliates and confirm payments as frequently as possibly. Affiliates will have questions about your affiliate program and you will need to have the time to proactively and effectively respond. You may find you need to make technical or creative changes to your website and that will take time.

Unless you have an affiliate marketing agency doing all the affiliate management for you, you will need to recruit new affiliates to work with you while motivating current affiliates to drive more sales. This is the marketing and account management role that will be an essential part of running the affiliate marketing program. There are several issues that you should consider before beginning:
1. Will you have a public or private affiliate program? Will you auto-approve all your affiliates?
2. Private / public program: If brand control is critical, then a network where you can manually validate applications and control where links are displayed is a factor. Other options include an invite only basis.
3. Auto accepts / approval required: Is the client eager to keep control of who is let into the program or should it be on an auto-accept basis?

See
Affiliate Marketing for Merchants
Affiliate Marketing for Merchants
Affiliate Book Affiliate Handbook