Yikes, there's so much left in Ryan Allis' book Zero To One Million to talk about (his section on product vs service based companies, for one) but since I only have this last post left to allocate to the book (so I don't turn this site into a Ryan Allis love-athon), I think I'll go with Partner Programs.
Why?
Because this is one of those rare books that actually discuss them with some numbers associated.
15% of iContact's sales come from partner programs (these include affiliates, marquee resellers and global resellers). Affiliates receive a 25% commission, marquee resellers receive a 30% commission (but have to sign a contract) and global resellers (those with more than 10,000 small business customers) receive a 35% commission.
(Yeah, the entire book is as detailed with solid numbers.)
Allis states that a good affiliate program (with tracking software) costs from $1,000 to $5,000 to launch but more than pays for itself over time. He estimates that within the first few months, entrepreneurs should be able to build at least 200 to 300 affiliates. Once this base of smaller affiliates is built, then it is time to go after the larger resellers.
How to build it?
By contacting the sites/blogs in your same space via personalized email.
I haven't really done justice to Zero To One Million. Allis crams too much information in this 284 page book for me to do so. You'll have to check it out for yourself.