How To Choose Affiliate Programs To Promote Online?

I don't know about you, but I personally have problems deciding which affiliate programs to promote on the internet. So much as that I tend to stay away from affiliate marketing as much as I possibly can. However no matter how much I may want to stay away from affiliate marketing, I do realize that it is yet another income stream for me. I have therefore decided to implement it as much as possible to my overall internet marketing strategy. With this in mind I have a list of questions I ask myself before joining or promoting any affiliate program. Let's go ahead and look at these, shall we? 1. Before you join any affiliate program you should always ask questions first. Go ahead and do a little research about the choices of program that you wish to join into. Make sure to get answers because they will help you make the best decision for your future affiliate marketing success. 2. You should always look into the cost, for example does it cost you anything to join? The beauty of the whole affiliate marketing thing is that most affiliate programs being offered today are absolutely free of charge. So think about it, why on earth will you settle for those that charge you some dollars before joining. After all at the end of the day they still take a certain percentage of every sale you refer to them. 3. When do you get paid? When do they issue the commission checks? Each affiliate program is different. You will find that, some issue their checks once a month, every quarter, etc. You should select the one that is best suited to your payment time choice. Many affiliate programs are now setting a minimum earned commission amount that an affiliate must meet or exceed in order for their checks to be issued on the next payment date. 4. What is the conversion rate? This is the average number of visitors you send to the website that it takes to generate a sale based on all current affiliate statistics. This factor is very important because this will tell you how much traffic you must generate before you can earn a commission from the sale. You have to be careful with this rate, some super affiliates have access to very responsive lists, and this sometimes increases the rate to misleading levels. I recommend you run your own test as far as this rate is concerned. This way you can choose the affiliate program based on the quality of traffic you can personally generate for the website. 5. How are referrals from your affiliate site tracked and for how long do they remain active in the system? You need to be confident on the program enough to track those

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people you refer from your site. This is the only way that you can get credit for a sale. The period of time that those people stay in the system is also important. This is because some visitors do not buy on the first visit 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. 6. What tools and stats are available to affiliates? Your choice of affiliate program should be capable of offering detailed stats. They should be available online anytime you decide to check them, i.e. all the time. Constantly checking your individual stats is important to know how many impressions, hits and sales you are converting. 7. Is the affiliate program on a pay per click basis, pay per referral or the most common pay per sale. Does the affiliate program also pay for the hits and impressions besides the commissions on sales? It all depends on which type you are more comfortable with. 8. Who is the online retailer? Find out whom you are doing business with to know if it is really a solid company. Know the products they are selling and the average amount they are achieving. 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. One way to ensure you will always get paid your commissions is to use the know affiliate companies e.g. Clickbank.com, Linkshare.com, cj.com etc. At least these companies have an established reputation you do not have to worry yourself too much about whether you are going to receive your commission checks or not. 9. How many tiers or levels do you get paid on? 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 commission on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor to the affiliate program. 10. Lastly, what is the amount of commission paid? 5% - 20% is the commission paid by most programs. Although most programs on Clickbank.com pay up to 75% per sale. Of course, that will be the commission level that most affiliates would like to earn per sale. However, don't let the commission received per sale be the sole deciding factor, you have to consider all the other previous points above as well. These are just some of the questions that you needed to ask yourself first before you join an affiliate program. You should be familiar with the many important aspects that your chosen affiliate program should have before incorporating them into your website. Try to ask yourself the above questions for each affiliate program. These can help you select the right program for you site from among the many available.
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