subject: Affiliate Marketing - How to Choose the Right Affiliate Program [print this page] There are thousands of affiliate programs to choose from, presenting you with a bewildering array of programs and products around which to base your online business. Which to choose? Proceed with caution. Choosing your affiliate program will be one of the most important decisions you make. This article focuses on the things you should look out for in making this decision.
Finding the right affiliate program is a little like getting married. I'm just kidding. It's nothing like getting married. But it is fair to say that finding the right affiliate program requires care because being involved with the kind, one that does not deal honestly with you or treat you as a valuable partner, can be the road to much heartache.
How to choose the right program? Here are some suggestions:
1. Find a program that genuinely interests you. How do you know if it interests you? Try the program. If you think it is interesting and of good value, your customers probably will as well. Moreover, a keystone of building trust and credibility with your customers is being knowledgeable about your recommendations and being more than just a shill that gives recommendations on behalf of the highest bidder.
2. Find a high quality program. How do you tell good quality from bad? Is the presentation of the program professional? Are there favorable or unfavorable reviews of the program on the Internet and in affiliate marketing forums? Do your diligence to make sure this is the kind of program you should be involved with.
3. Find out if the target market of the affiliate program is one that has room for growth. You want increasing profits for your programs, not to get involved in a group of products that have saturated the market or for which demand is in decline.
4. Find an affiliate program that pays a fair commission. Look for a plan that pay a residual income. Also, a commission of at least 30% is a must. For e-book or other electronic products I would insist on a commission of at least 50%. It does not cost the program a penny to produce additional copies of this program and any sales you make is gravy to them. They can afford to give you 50%. If they cannot pay the fare, take your marketing juice to another program and let the stingy programs rely on affiliate marketers that do not know any better.
A program with a compensation plan that pays out a residual income and a payout of 30% or more would be a great choice. There are some programs offering this kind of compensation. Look closely for one. Do not waste your time with programs that do not reward substantially for your efforts.
5. Your affiliate program has every incentive to make sure you make sales. Make sure you sign up with a program that understands that it needs to support you. A good affiliate program has plenty of email script, banner ads, and other graphics and text to help you make sales. If the one you are considering does not, find another one.
6. It is critical that you get paid for all of your hard work. You are, to some extent, relying on your affiliate program to honestly and accurately track your commissions and pay you. Before you start sending business to a new affiliate program, make sure you understand the kind of software that they use and how accurately and timely they track affiliate commissions. There is nothing worse than having the suspicion that your affiliate program is not paying you everything that you are owed due to incompetence or fraud.
Use these tips to choose the right affiliate program, one that will be a loyal and valuable partner for your affiliate marketing business.
Tom Myers writes on a number of subjects of interest to his readers. He has recen
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