subject: Which Affiliate Programs Do I Choose? [print this page] How do you find the right affiliate program and product to sell? Before you start looking at affiliate programs to join you should take a pencil and a piece of paper and write down all the questions you have. And when you find a possible program to join ask the questions and do a little research. Try to get answers. Remember that the answers will be the deciding point of what you will be achieving later on.
The first thing you take a look at is the price. What does it cost you to join? Today many affiliate programs are free of charge. Why do I have to pay to be an affiliate? It depends on what the company offers you. The first thing is that the numbers of competitors will be much lower in paid programs. How is the demand for the products, the quality of the products, etc. Ask the questions you wrote in your earlier research. Use Google to find out if there is a huge demand. Find out if you shall settle for those that charge you some dollars before joining or a free program.
The second ting is the commission. When will you receive your commission checks? Every program is different. Some programs will pay you directly into your account at once, some will issue their checks every 14 days, some once a month, etc. Select the program most suited to your payment time choice. Due to the cost many affiliate programs are setting a minimum earned commission amount that an affiliate must meet or exceed in order for their checks to be issued.
Third thing - How much traffic do you have to create to the sales page before you get a sale. What is the sale per visitor? What about the marketing tools - what does the company offer you? Do the company give you access to affiliate statistics? This factor is very important because this will tell you how much traffic do you need to generate before you can earn a commission.
How does the company track referrals from an affiliate's site and for how long do they remain in the system of the company? You need to be confident on the program enough to track those people you refer from your site. This is the only way that you can get credit for a sale. How long time wills those people stay in the system. Some visitors do not buy initially but may want to return later to make the purchase. Know if you will still get credit for the sale if it is done some months from a certain day.
What kinds of affiliate stats are available? Detailed affiliate stats are an important part of an affiliate program. They should be available online anytime you want to check them out. Checking your individual stats is important to know how many impressions, hits and sales are generated from your page. Impressions are the number of times the banner link was viewed by a visitor of your site. A hit is every time a visitor clicks on the banner.
Who is the online retailer? Find out what kind of company is behind the scene, is it a solid company you are doing business with or will the company be gone tomorrow. Know the products they are selling and the average amount they are achieving. Does the company offer you special discounts if you want to buy the products? People who get the sale often know the products and use or have used the products. The more you know about the retailer offering you the affiliate program, the easier it will be for you to know if that program is really for you and your site.
What about the compensation plan? Is the affiliate a one tier or two tier program? A single tier program pays you only for the business you yourself have generated. A two tier program pays you for the business, plus it also pays you a commission on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor in your program. Some two-tier programs are even paying small fees on each new affiliate you sponsor. More like a recruitment fee. Depending on the products but this can be very important for your earning in future. If you can build a team and earn an income every time one of your team members makes a sale.
Is it a low cost product or a high ticket product? Do you get 25% in commission each time you make a sale of 20 USD - that is 5 USD to you - or do you get 70% commission on each sale of 2000 USD - 1.400 USD to you. What about the marketing cost. How will you get the traffic? Do you know how to generate free traffic or will you use PPC. What is your marketing budget?
Mostly you will get 20 - 50% in commission, but you will find program which pay you 70% in commission. An example is YourNetBiz which is a high ticket program, which pay you 1.400 USD for each 2.000 USD sale. As you can see from the figures, you will now understand why the average sales amount and hit to sale ratio is important.
These are just some of the questions that needed answering first before you enter into an affiliate program. You should now be familiar with the most important aspects that your chosen program should have before incorporating them into your website. Remember to ask the questions before you join your affiliate program. These can help you select the right program for you site from among the many available.
