There are many affiliate programs available to you on the net. However, to improve your profitability as an affiliate you need to choose the programs you market wisely, as not all affiliate programs are created equal.
Tips For Joining Affiliate Programs
Before you merrily join any affiliate program it pays to consider which affiliate programs are the best to join.
These are the crucial program features that I consider necessary inclusions in any affiliate program.
The affiliate program must have a generous payment structure. For me, this means a high commission payment, which is a high percentage of the purchase price - nothing under a 25% commission.
Make sure the affiliate program you’re about to join has a professional looking site. You don’t want to send visitors to a site that looks unprofessional.
Make sure that the affiliate program has a comprehensive affiliate statistics page, which lists the number of click-throughs, the number of sales, and the amount you’ve earned to date. This should be broken down by month.
Make sure that these affiliate statistics are “real time”. This means statistics which are updated automatically and immediately. You do not want to find out today about a sale you made a week ago.
Ensure that the affiliate program provides you with a wide variety of text links, banners and graphics to put on your web page. Personally I prefer to use text links. However, certain other types of banners and graphics still work well.
Know how often you are going to be paid. If you’re tossing up between 2 programs and one pays monthly and the other pays quarterly, the one which pays monthly is a better arrangement. You don’t want to wait months before you get paid for your hard work.
See if the affiliate program gives $ examples of how their top affiliates are doing. This can be a great indicator as to whether or not it is a good affiliate program. If some affiliates are earning many thousands per month, then it is a good affiliate program.
If the affiliate program has examples of which marketing methods these successful affiliates are using to get their results, then this information is also most beneficial.
An affiliate program, which offers a special monthly newsletter just for its affiliates is also great. Here, you’ll also get extra tips and information on techniques that are working well.
See if the program notifies you by email when you make a sale, or you have an affiliate sign up under you (if it is a 2-tier program). It motivates you when you see ‘You’ve made another sale, or another Affiliate has signed up’ in your email inbox.
Ensure that the program provides top-level support for its affiliates. If they cannot answer your query immediately make sure they respond within 48 hours. Good, timely support is critical to your success.
There is a huge selection of Affiliate Programs available to you on the web. Choosing the right one for you to market is never an easy task. However these features (described above) are necessary components of a professionally managed affiliate program.
Remember Affiliate Programs are a “buyers market.” So choose programs which have these preferred features, and a product or service you believe in.
Make sure you do plenty of research before joining any affiliate program.
Commissions - The Higher the Better
A good way to identify if the management of an affiliate program you’re thinking of joining is serious about their affiliate program is by the commissions (percentage of sales) they’re willing to pay you for your effort.
If someone is offering you 10% commission and they are keeping the rest, then you need to ask yourself this… "Should I really be in this affiliate program?”
An affiliate program I recently joined called ‘E-Book Marketing Explained’ pays out 45% commission to their affiliates and another 10% on the 2nd tier.
That’s 55% of the sale price!
The owners of the program only keep 45% of the sale price, and it’s from this percentage that they also take out their costs. Now, either they’ve gone completely mad, or they are very smart.
I suspect they’re very smart.
Why?
Well, by paying out such high commissions they’re attracting many serious affiliates into their program. This means that they’ll sell in much higher volumes. With these higher volumes of sales they can afford to give away such a high commission.
AND… because they give so much away to their affiliates with their high commission rate it shows that they’re supremely confident about the worth of their own product or service, and its ability to sell itself. Their product or service is that good, and this is why they offer these high percentages to their affiliates.
Affiliates do all the pre-selling and all the hard work to get the prospect to view the program’s web sites pages. Therefore, they want to be paid well for their effort. So, as an affiliate, do not accept miserly 10% commission rate payments. Set yourself a standard of nothing less than 25% and make sure that this 25% represents more than just a few dollars in payment.
It is with the bigger percentage payers that you’ll make decent commissions, the 40%-plus hitters. These BIG affiliate program commissions are the ones that will create an income burst to your bank account balance each and every month. Focus on these to get a better return for your effort.
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