Choosing Affiliate Programs, The
Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Copyright 2005 Adrian Ryder
For many people who would like to get involved with e commerce, the
thought of finding a product, creating a website, organizing payment systems
and marketing that website is just too much of a challenge to start with.
The good news is that there is an alternative choice, which takes care
of at least three out of these four challenges for you, and that alternative
is to join an affiliate program.
So, just what is an affiliate program? It�s a program offered by an
established website owner/operator,whereby he distributes copies of his
site to affiliates, enabling them to sell his product line for a commission.
In most cases, the affiliates only responsibility is to market the site,
everything else is handled by the website owner. The beauty of an affiliate
program, is that it allows anyone who owns or has access to a computer,
the opportunity to have their own online business, fully operational, literally
in a matter of minutes and in many cases, completely free of charge.
The temptation for many people when they realise the wealth of free
affiliates programs on the internet is to jump in with both feet, and join
programs left right and centre, lured by the promises of wealth made by
program operators. Whilst this wont do any harm, a far better plan of action
is to choose one or two quality programs, and concentrate on building an
income from these before adding more programs to your portfolio.
So, just how do you choose a good affiliate program, what criteria do
you look for?
Here are a few suggestions to get you started, which I will expand
on later in this article.
1/ First and foremost, a good quality in demand product.
2/ A good quality, visually stimulating easy to navigate site.
3/ A fair compensation plan.
4/ A responsive company contact / support system
5/ Good affiliate marketing info and advice
6/ Testimonials from other affiliates.
7/ Cost
1/ There are a huge array of products and services looking for affiliates,
so you have plenty of choice. If you have a passion shared by others you
may like to choose products within that category, or you may have a particular
area of expertise. There are a number of excellent tools available on the
internet to access info on product popularity and viability.
Affiliates Alert, is an excellent system which enables you to view
product rankings in the Clickbank marketplace [ whats hot and whats not
based on sales made through the Clickbank marketplace] A Alert also allows
you to do a keyword search for a particular product or product group. At
time of writing you can pick up a free version of this program at http://affiliatesalert.com
. Another excellent keyword search tool based on the number of searches
for a product or product type on the net over the preceding month is available
at http://www.overture.com
. Its called the keyword selector tool. Using either or both of these tools
should give you a good picture of current demand for affiliate products
which appeal to you.
2/ A good quality site which catches the eye, and is easy to navigate
and purchase from is a must. Have a good look around a potential affiliate
site yourself If you have problems navigating round the site so will others.
Do the products look appealing,are product descriptions clear and accurate,
would you buy from this site? Check for FAQ [ frequently asked questions]
links, and ensure that there is a clear Contact the Company link.
3/ Obviously a fair compensation plan is essential. There is no hard
and fast rule with this. Downloadable info products often offer a higher
commission rate than physical products [ in many cases 50%] Often with
physical products, your compensation is the difference between wholesale
and retail. Many affiliate programs offer a two tier compensation system,
where you too can recruit affiliates, and earn income from their efforts,
well worth exploring as it gives you two streams of income from one source.
4/ Good company support is an important factor for the new affiliate.
Check out the quality and timeliness of the company support system yourself.
A rapid quality response is a sign that the company is organized and efficient
[ 24- 48 hrs is reasonably acceptable] . If your still waiting after 3-4
business days, don�t get involved.
5/ A good company will offer you specific advice and tools to assist
you in your marketing efforts, check out whats on offer before making your
decision. The better affiliate programs often offer online advice tools
and tips, and downloadable e books on marketing free of charge.
6/ Testimonials cost nothing, and are a very powerful sales tool. The
more testimonials on site both on the products and the affiliate program
the better. If contact details are available, don�t hesitate to e mail
testimonial providers personally, and ask them questions abut the opportunity
7/ Many good quality affiliate programs are available completely free
of charge, so do think seriously before spending anything more than $100-200
dollars to buy an affiliate site. Some affiliate programs do offer to actively
market your site on your behalf, and some few even offer income guarantees.
It may be worth paying a higher price for a quality site, if the company
is making this commitment to its affiliates, but only after your research
has shown the opportunity to be legitimate.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of considerations, but bearing
these in mind, should enable you to choose a program with a saleable product,
and reasonable income potential. To end on a note of warning, there are
still a few programs out there that are the internet equivalent of the
chain letter, no product, deposit $10 in xyz acct to join, and soon you
will have hundreds of people giving you $10 each. Yeah right!!! , the majority
of people have heard it all before { like those e mails telling you that
have just won the Peruvian $10 million dollar lottery which you didn�t
even enter } and will give programs like this a wide berth, and so should
you.
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Adrians affiliate site at http://nzpom007.freestoreclub.com
offers a free affiliate website and the opportunity to participate in a
two tier program
Next Article:
The
Truth About Easy Affiliate Income
So, the bottom line truth about affiliate programs is that, although
they are easy to set up, it�s really not very easy at all to make money
with them. This is true even if you�ve done everything right. It takes
a lot of patience, tweaking..........
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