How To Choose The Right Affiliate Program

Affiliate marketing is proving to be a huge success with the internet growing at the rate it has over the last several years. Most merchants have began affiliate programs to cash in on the world wide web.

Many affiliate marketers have earned huge incomes by marketing other peoples products. If you are not sure what an affiliate is….an affiliate’s job is to refer customers to a merchants website via a special link. If that customer makes a purchase for a product or service, the affiliate earns commission.

By helping merchants sell their products online, affiliate marketers have many advantages over traditional marketing methods. Affiliate marketers have complete control and flexibility, from the products choose to promote to the hours they work. Affiliate marketers do not have to deal with inventory, customer service or any other part of running a business, as their sole job is to make referrals.

For an affiliate to be successful, the programs they promote must be well thought out, the products or services must be in demand and the program must be beneficial for the affiliate. Affiliate programs vary depending on the company, commissions or incentive’s. Each affiliate program is structured differently. Some offer a percentage of a sale, where others offer a base rate per lead. Many affiliate programs also offer bonuses for affiliate whom send in a set amount of sales or leads.

Let’s say you have an only boutique selling children’s items, you can add some affiliate banners to your website to earn an additional stream of income. You would look for products or services that your customers would be interested in.

Let’s say you have a blog about pets. Look for programs that pet owners would be interested in. Promoting products for travel or internet products probably would not convert very well.

Many affiliate marketers promote several programs at one time. Here are a few things to consider when choosing affiliate programs….

1. Get the facts before you join affiliate program. Read up on products and services before you decide to sell them. If you have a website with specific content about something, think about marketing products and services that match the site and the mindset of your visitors. You do not want to waste your time promoting a product or service that does not appeal to your visitors.

Affiliate marketing networks offer a nice selection of different programs in which an affiliate may promote. Here, merchants and affiliate marketers can connect. The merchants advertise their affiliate programs to interested affiliates who sign up with the network for free. Third party affiliate program networks are helpful since they provide affiliates with access to a large number of advertisers. They also offer stats, and sales records. It is much easier to keep up with your progress in a network program, as you have one area to look for all sales and commissions, verses checking 20 different programs. You can easily track and compare their sales records, performances, benefits, products and services right on the affiliate network.

2.) Don’t spend your time on a product that isn’t marketable. Take a look at sales data, if possible. That should give you a good idea of the products quality and reliability. Examine previous and present sales data.

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and ask yourself if you would buy such a product or service online. Would you recommend the product to someone else? If the answers to these questions are no, then you can not expect it to do well. Also, make sure to overview the company’s compensation plan, since merchants who may be selling the exact same product may reward affiliates differently.

3. If you don’t have time to promote intensively, select merchants that offer strong banners, graphics, ads, and content. If the merchant also provides training and support on how to effectively sell their products, you have probably found a winner.

4. Note all the pros and cons of each affiliate program you are considering. Gather information on products and collect data on the effectiveness of the programs. Such as, do they pay only when a customer creates and account or only when the customer makes a purchase. Also check on payouts, how frequently affiliates are paid. If you want to get checks monthly and an affiliate pays out every other month, look for a program that is a better match for you.

For additional tips on affiliate marketing check out www.AffiliateClassroom.com. They have a great proven training system that shows you how to be an affiliate marketer and how to make the most of affiliate income. The Affiliate Classroom training program is just $1.00 to try out.