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5 Tips For Joining Affiliate Programs
By Tor Pedersen
Expert Author
Article Date: 2003-07-23
Let me get straight to the point! There is a jungle of affiliate programmes on the net. Some are good, but very many are mediocre. If you don't know what to look for when choosing who to go into partnership with, there's a good chance that you will invest time and money on mediocre programmes which will never yield any worthwhile income.
Here are 5 things which must be in place for the programme to be of good quality:
1. Commission. I find it quite unbelievable that so many programmes pay out such appalling commission to their retailers. Many are right down at 10 to 15%. Generally, the whole process takes only 10% of the price, so who does the other 90% go to? Marketing?
None of the programmes I promote pay less than 30% commission, and some of them are right up at 60 to 65% commission. There are, of course, some programmes which can yield a good profit with a lower commission, but these are a clear minority.
Look also for programmes which offer lifetime commission - that way you will be paid for all the future purchases made by a customer resulting from your affiliate link.
2. Good-quality products. You should not sin against this. In future, most of your success with affiliate programmes will depend on your good reputation. People (including myself) are cheesed off by and despair of all the spamming. The number of people who spam increases day by day. Don't be like these: instead, focus on selling quality products, products which meet people's genuine needs.
Yes, I know it can be expensive to test all the products that you are going to sell. But in the long term this can be a very worthwhile investment which will repay many times over in terms of increased reputation and respect - which are key ingredients in selling products online.
So concentrate on finding programmes offering quality products.
A little hint: if the product is not good enough for you, it will probably not be good enough for anyone else either.
3. A programme which matches the theme of your website (for instance, don't promote a dating service if your site focuses on business).
4. A site that sells. In the course of running an affiliate programmes directory "http://affiliateinformer.com ", I see all sorts of programmes which I may or may not wish to include. What surprises me is that many of the programmes offering high commission don't have a website that is able to sell the product.
Many decide to offer high-commission programmes without asking themselves whether the site has the slightest chance of selling the product, and will therefore never earn anything from it.
When looking at a merchant's website which you are considering a partnership with, put yourself in the visitor's shoes. What will they see when they arrive there via your affiliate link?
* a page plastered with adverts for other products?
* a poorly-designed and unprofessional webpage?
* a confusing site with poorly-thought-out navigation?
If you find something which does not look promising, it will not look good to your visitors either, and neither you nor the programme owner will generate any profit.
Many companies also advertise on their own websites in order to make secondary earnings from this. This takes the focus away from the main product which you are promoting, and creates a leakage which again results in fewer sales for you.
Every time a customer you have sent chooses to follow the advertisement instead, this results in no profit for you. This is not, perhaps, a deciding factor, but it is a good idea to have it in the back of your mind when you are making your list of potential partner programmes.
5. Well-established company. Choose a well-established and well-run company which is likely to be around for a long time. The problem with newly-established companies is that they lack the experience necessary for a successful net business, and there are many pitfalls.
There's nothing more frustrating than investing a lot of time and money in promoting a programme only to find that the company has gone to the wall and you have to start all over again. Of course there are good new businesses with sustainable programmes, but as a rule it's safer to invest time and money in companies which have already shown that they know what they are doing.
You now know the most important criteria for a good programme. If you use this knowledge actively when choosing partners, you will begin to show good profits much sooner!
Happy marketing, Tor Pedersen
About the Author:
Tor Pedersen is the CEO of http://affiliateinformer.com where he offers free articles, tips, hints and real-world advice on how to make money with your website! To subscribe to Tor Pedersen's Affiliate Insider just mailto:affiliateinformer@sendfree.com
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