FACTORS TO
CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
CONSIDER THIS:
Always ensure that you sign up for an affiliate program
that offers valuable products/services that is needed by your
potential clients. Something that will help them solve their
problems instantly. Make sure the products/services offered by the
supplier are of the highest quality and that they provide excellent
customer services levels. Bear in mind that your credibility as a
referrer is on the line every single time you make a recommendation
to others.
Choose a program that you have a dying passion for
You have heard it many times before. Just the same for
brick and mortar businesses, the No.1 rule in setting up any
business is to always go into one that feeds on your passion. If you
have a passion for music, sign up for top affiliate programs for
everything that relates to music. Don’t just jump into something
for the sake of making money. You may be able to earn some cash
along the way, but that’s about it. If your true interest
aren’t’ there, they will slowly diminish as time passes by. The
moment you’re in a business, you’re in it for good! If you’re
building up a business on your interest/hobbies/passion, work just
doesn’t feel like “work” anymore, and before you even realize
it, you’ll have your own online money generating machine working
for you 24 hours a day, 365 days for the rest of your life.
What business are you in
First, consider the type of business that
you’re in. If you have a website featuring everything and anything
about fashion, sign up for affiliate programs which are directly
related to the same topic on fashion. DO NOT sway away and diversify
by featuring products/services that are totally unrelated topics on
your site, your visitors just won’t buy the idea. The people who
are there on your site are there for ONLY one reason; which is to
research/find information and subsequently purchase “fashion
related” products/services and NOT something which is not related
to it at all!
Company Background
As always, find out as much about the company background
and history before signing up for their program. You will want
assurance that you’re referring your clients to a stabil company
which is not a “fly-by-night” company. Write to them, see how
fast they respond, contact the clients of the particular supplier to
find out exactly how they feel about their satisfaction levels.
How well are you taken care of
Top and professional affiliate programs knows for a fact
that affiliates contributes a substantial amount in their success.
They sincerely care for the success of their affiliates and these
are the types of affiliate programs that you would want to sign up
for. The professional ones will usually have an on going newsletter
to provide product/services updates, assist/guide and offer coaching
to their affiliates on the latest techniques/trends to boost their
own sales. You should be able to tell the good from the bad by the
way they answer your affiliate queries when you need them.
What sort of online statistics provided
Always lookout for the type of real-time online statistics
provided by the affiliate program. The more detailed, the better.
The real-time stats provided by them are one of your most important
marketing tools that will ever need to track the effectiveness of
your advertising and marketing campaigns.
What is the commission payout?
Ultimately you should choose commission payouts of 40% or
more. (Anything below it is just not sufficient for those who are
thinking of making a living solely on affiliate programs). But once
again it depends on the type of product and the price being offered
for sale. Generally digital products such as downloadable ebooks,
software, web-based services offer higher commission rates
(30%-70%)than hard physical products such as CDs, IT/non IT
accessories, books, posters (5%-20%), etc.
Do they offer residual income
Some merchants who charge their customers monthly or
yearly fees will pay affiliates residual commissions on a monthly
basis for as long as the customer stays with them. This
is where the real money from affiliate programs actually comes from.
The best thing about residual commission is that your monthly income
will only continue to grow larger and larger each month rather than
traditional “one-off” commission payment whereby you will have
to consistently refer new buyers month after month just so that you
can earn those commissions
Affiliate tracking systems
Make sure the company uses multiple
affiliate tracking systems that work! Cookies can expire or be
deleted, affiliate ID
links can be erased, etc. Try looking for companies that are able to
track offline orders (by fax, word of mouth, phone, mails, etc.)
generated by your efforts. Forward-looking companies serious about
their affiliate program will always be on the lookout for more
effective and advanced methods to compensate their affiliates for
their hard work, such as more complex database algorithms or CGI
scripts.
Affiliate Support
Reputable programs usually provide
excellent support and training to their registered affiliates. They
understand and place a high value on the success of the affiliates.
Top programs should provide regular newsletters highlighting the
latest strategies, product updates/information, etc to ensure that
their affiliates are geared towards success.
Frequency of Payments
Always check out the frequency in which
commissions are being paid. Once a month is good enough. This
usually varies between different programs. On some cases,
commissions will not be paid to you until a certain level is
reached. Some programs will knowingly set unreasonably high and
unrealistic targets which will either take u a long time before you
are actually being paid or you might never be paid at all! Do your
calculations to see exactly how many sales you will have to generate
in order for you to receive the payments.
Lastly, always make sure you read the
affiliate agreement. It is a MUST! Don’t just scroll down the
agreement and assume that all affiliate agreements are the same
because they are NOT! You will be surprised by how some agreements
are in total favor of the merchants! Train yourself to read
agreements and be good at it.
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