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To come out with an affiliate program imo requires a good amount of capital. If you're doing a niche thing it's an excellent idea to buy custom content, not only will it encourage webmasters to use your program, but it also offers a great incentive to retain members.
Programming is expensive as well, if you're looking to cut costs you can always use a 3rd party billing company that offers a revshare program with their services...of course doing that not only ties you in to being forced to use that billing company without a severe headache and you also get stuck with only getting the statistics they provide. If you decide to go the programmer route, let me know =) I've written my fair share of custom webmaster partnership programs =D
The actual website cost will probably run you about 3-4k assuming you're getting a graphic designer who knows what they're doing and are actually building you a custom site rather than from a template. You can always try out one of the many contractor auction sites to find a graphic designer.
The big money drain will be your initial payouts, especially if you're using a pay per signup system. Most 3rd party billers hold a % of your funds for a time to offset potential chargebacks and credits, Plus most PPS pay out more than a month's membership for a user, which means for the first little while you're going to have more money going out than coming in. I think the standard rule of thumb is always have around 3 months worth of payout funds readily avaiable.
Craig
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