Before joining any affiliate program, be sure to ask questions. Look into the options provided by the program you’re considering and get answers – this is how you should determine which affiliate program is right for you.
Dies it cost anything to join? Most affiliate programs are free to join – so there’s no reason to sign up with an affiliate who wants you to pay them before you can join.
How often are commission checks disbursed? Each program does this on a different schedule – some issue checks once a month, once a quarter and so on. Choose one which fits your requirements. A lot of affiliate programs set a minimum commission which has to be earned before a check will be issued.
Find out the hit per sale ratio – this would be the average number of clicks on a link or banner it takes to make a sale. This is an important number; this will tell you how much traffic you need to drive to your site to see the amount of income you want.
How does the program track referrals and how long do they keep these referrals in their system? Since you will be relying on the merchant to track your referrals, you need to know the answer to this so that you can be confident that you will actually be paid for the marketing work you do on their behalf. Many visitors don’t buy in the first visit but instead come back to the site later and purchase. You need to know how long after their initial referral to the merchant’s site you can still get a commission for their purchases.
What affiliate statistics do they make available to you? Any affiliate program who you should actually do business with should offer you detailed statistics – these should be available to you at any time. Checking your stats is the only way to know how your site is performing and can help you to fine tune your marketing efforts.
Will the affiliate program also pay you for hits and page views, or just sales? It’s good to be paid for all of the above since this will increase your affiliate income. If your affiliate program has a low sales to hit ratio, this is especially good to have.
Who is this merchant anyway? Find out everything you can about the company before you begin doing business with them. Know their products and their sales figures, if possible. If you are well informed about the merchant, it will be easier to decide if their affiliate program will work for you.
Is this a single tier affiliate program or a two tier one? Single tier programs pay you only for the business you bring in for the merchant, but a two tier system pays you for this as well as a percentage of the sales of any affiliate you recommend to them as well. Some even pay a sort of finders fee for each new recruit.
Last of all, what is the rate of commission paid? Somewhere between 5-20% is typical for sales (unless it’s a digital product then it’s 50% or more) and .01-.05 per hit (I try to get $1 or more per visitor but doesn’t always happen). Programs which pay for page views pay even less than this per view. As you can see, the hit to sales ratio is very important.
These are just a few of the questions you should ask before signing up for an affiliate program. There is a lot to consider and a lot to learn before you get too deeply involved. Ask the affiliate program companies these and any other questions you may have. Getting answers can help you to choose the right program for you out of the huge number of available choices.
43 Comments
Mr ClickBank - Ron Davies
November 6, 2008Excellent job Reed. This is the kind of article that answers dozens of the kind of questions I recive on affiliate marketing every week.
Keep ’em coming!
Cheers,
Ron Davies CD, MBA
http://www.RonaldDavies.com
Bruno Auger
November 6, 2008Reed
You proved some excellent answers here. I never did look at stats to closely before when I first started.
Now I relize its an important element when you choose your affiliate program. Without finding how well a product converts you will be just wasting time and money
Dawn
November 6, 2008Reed,
Great info. I also like to look
for programs that pay monthly
residual income.
Thanks again for all the great
content you make available.
Henrik Blunck
November 6, 2008Hi Reed
Again you have succeeded in writing precisely what I would also have said on the subject.
Keep up the good work. It’s a darn good blog. 🙂
Floyd Bogart
November 6, 2008Lately I have been doing very well with a couple of Instant Commission Affiliate Programs.
Timothy Millar
November 6, 2008Hey Reed,
I didn’t do a lot of research when I first started and the results showed the grim outcome, now thanks to you I have been actually getting results. Thanks Buddy, Have a wonderful Day! “The Leprechaun”
Bryan Hee
November 6, 20082 tier affiliate programs is the best program to promote. You can leverage your effort and earn small percentage of commission from your downline.
To Your Success
Bryan Hee
Create Your Own eBay Store
November 6, 2008Personally, I prefer commission that’s paid to Paypal account. Receiving commission via cheque is kind of troublesome and in some countries, it costs a bomb to get the cheque clear.
I also like the idea of monthly residual income. To what I know, usually only membership sites and health products type of affiliate program would provide you a continual stream of monthly commissions.
John Counsel
November 6, 2008Useful info, Reed.
John
Mark Hultgren
November 6, 2008Great words of wisdom Reed! I run my own affiliate program using one of the best management scripts available. While I do charge for membership access to the script, affiliates are welcome to register for free to promote my products. There is a two tier system in place where the second tier is points that can be redeemed for any product listed in the membership. There are also monthly memberships that can be promoted and the affiliate receives a minimum of 50% commission each and every sale\month. As the affiliates make more sales, they also make higher commissions (up to 70%)
Jane
November 6, 2008Reed,
What about the whole issue of “cookies”. I’ve participated as an affiliate in several launches and have felt a little “ripped off” by some of them.
Some use cookies and others use the platform of link purchased from. I think it’s important that affiliates understand this whole issue.
Michael Cheney recently had his promotion on CashCows and he set it up as “link purchased from” per advice from other gurus.
On the other hand Michael Rassmussen’s last promotion “Get More Buyers” was cookied. If the subscriber doesn’t know that he needs to clear his cookies to get the bonus being offered by the affiliate, then it can be a loss for both the buyer and the affiliate.
It can be a win-win, win-loss or loss-loss for the affiliate with either of these systems. I do think it’s important to mention that the affiliate understands whether or not the product their promoting is “cookied”.
How about you?
Thanks,
Jane
Ernie Carroll
November 6, 2008Great post Reed!
I think its a good idea also to talk to the affiliate manager to see if they will put your tracking code on their site. There are only a handful that will do it, but if they will, you can fine-tune your advertising by weeding out the keywords that are costing you bundles and making any sales.
Ken English
November 6, 2008I knew you were a robot! How else could you write so much and send so many emails? The content was great, but I was particulary intrigued by the delivery – text to speech. There were a couple of questionable words, but, by and large, you spoke better than many of my friends. This is a text to voice translator that I think is cool – http://budurl.com/imtranslator.
goblogging
November 6, 2008My two major consideration to promote affiliate products:
1) High commission rate (20% – 80%)
2) related to my niche
gobloggings last blog post..Earning Report: October 2008
normz2
November 6, 2008Good post and comments. Keep them coming.
Residual Affiliate Income
November 6, 2008Your information from this article is very helpful. One thing to add as a personal opinion is that i feel it will be better to promote a program that offers a residual income. I have a post discussing the importance of having aresidual affiliate income
Residual Affiliate Incomes last blog post..Importance of having a residual affiliate income
Geoff Dodd
November 6, 2008Thanks again, Reed. I prefer residual income affiliate programs that’ll pay the affiliate for the lifetime of the customer. Not only nutritional mlm am I thinking about – Adlandpro in Canada pays you lifetime commissions for advertising services after your initial referral of a new client. Sitesell does this too. Sometimes we affiliates waste our efforts on a one-hit (1 sale) wonder type of affiliate program, like the online detective programs.
Geoff.
Geoff Dodds last blog post..No Hunger Pangs!
Daniel Duverge
November 6, 2008This is the kind of info that I get from tracking my own traffic. If you can get these figures from the owner of a product you are promoting, that’s a good sign already. If you dont get an answer, dont promote. IMHO
B&B Marketing
November 6, 2008I STILL HAVE NOT MADE ANY MONEY OUT OF ANY PROGRAM OFF THE Internet YET and in order to doing so one has to spend much time in preperation ,I have chosen just one out of all the emails sent to me and will be working with that next week ,will inform you of the progress meanwhile I must sey that the information you supply to everyone has merrit CHEERS b-b
Damas
November 6, 2008Hi Reed,
I’m an SFI Affiliate and my personal website.How do I generate more traffic and conversions? Perhaps you could help me.
Thank you.
Damass last blog post..
John Counsel
November 6, 2008Being paid by PayPal rules out joining 2-tier affiliate programs. PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy forbids more than one tier of affiliate commissions being paid via their system.
Any merchant trying to use PayPal to pay 2-tier commissions risks having their account closed, permanently.
John Counsel
Laurie Brandt
November 6, 2008Affilate Programs are great ways to ad to your income. Many make great money doing just affiliate programs only. Myself have sites but use them for extra income, to have something to get my members involved with so they too can earn extra cash.
However, you need to be careful in who you choose as your Affiliate Program Associates. 50% and above is great. I would not do it for less unless there was a high payout in cash for that 40% or below and a sure thing an easy to sell.
Instant payouts are best, you sell and your money goes directly into your PayPal or other payment gateway Account. Many pay within 24 hours, these are the preferred ones. There are many that pay 1 or 2 times monthly which is ok but still instant gratification for our work is what we truly want isn’t it?
When I have completed all my sites my affiliate Programs will be instant payout. I am all for them, just check them out, be sure they pay and happy earning.
To You Success Wealth,
Laurie Brandt
Laurie Brandts last blog post..Welcome, Pre-Launch has just opened!
Sylvester
November 6, 2008Hi Reed
Great pointers to consider.I’ve never really paid much attention to stats other than keeping sales count.
Hope you would post a more in depth one on stats and available tools and tips to track them.
Sylvester
Sylvesters last blog post..10 Christmas Gifts and The Law of Attraction
Jussi Koiranen
November 6, 2008One thing to keep in mind is whether they pay for new sales your referred client makes. Residual income is king! Thus how long the merchant keeps track of your referrals is of great importance.
Nayanika
November 6, 2008Affilate Programs are great ways to ad to your income. Many make great money doing just affiliate programs only. Myself have sites but use them for extra income, to have something to get my members involved with so they too can earn extra cash.
However, you need to be careful in who you choose as your Affiliate Program Associates. 50% and above is great. I would not do it for less unless there was a high payout in cash for that 40% or below and a sure thing an easy to sell.
Instant payouts are best, you sell and your money goes directly into your PayPal or other payment gateway Account. Many pay within 24 hours, these are the preferred ones. There are many that pay 1 or 2 times monthly which is ok but still instant gratification for our work is what we truly want isn’t it?
When I have completed all my sites my affiliate Programs will be instant payout. I am all for them, just check them out, be sure they pay and happy earning.
To You Success Wealth,
I am now still deciding about it all Reed
Till the
all else will have to wait
Ari Lestariono
November 6, 2008Hi Reed,
I got your letter and notified that you post new article about affiliate programme, your right about one thing that, it is good way to make money online and residual income as well.
The challenge would be for newbies they have to learn many things, starting market research on specific niche markets and getting free traffic.
As you may also know that putting your affiliate links to our own blog or site is a good way to boost your affiliate programme and enhance in many ways for income and should match with what blog on same niche markets.That’s what I did.
Getting traffic especially free, is also another challenge for newbies, that would take the hardwork by learning SEO on/off page.
Posting articles, answer in top forums, article writing, blog walking, autoresponders, list building(in my opinion Reese, this is also not easy), email marketing, social bookmarking and many ways and technique’s, but I bet that you are an expert on those things.
Well that’s just about it Reese, hopefully I can contribute something in your blogs.
God Bless you all
Ari Lestarionos last blog post..Onions: Different Taste for Each Season
PV Reymond
November 6, 2008Hi Reed,
This article is very informative, you touched crucial things.
To make money as an affiliate you have to choose the right program to promote, and to choose the right program you have to keep in mind all the things explained in this article.
Thanks,
^PV Reymond
http://www.pvreymond.com
Richard
November 6, 2008Another useful and informative post. How do you find the time to put together such great content? 🙂
Rivers
November 6, 2008Reed…good on you. This reaffirms that doing some simple research will save you tons of hassles and make you some money too!
Here’s to your success
Rivers
MyInternetBiz.ca
Dan Liptak
November 6, 2008Another good tip is to see if they are willing to give you a review copy. Even if they don’t say it on their website, it never hurts to ask. If you have a proven track record of making affiliate sales, then most merchants will be more than happy to give you a review copy.
Asem
November 6, 2008Hi Reed,
One more metric would be related to the Niche itsself and not only to the merchant. It is not always the merchant’s mistakes, if you choose to offer their products in the wrong time, or using the wrong way. Therefore,
a} Check ezinearticles.com to see what the most posted articles about in the last three months. I.e. Use others results to speed up your success.
b} In addition to Reed’s golden tips, check also if your affiliate program offers you guide and help in the advertising. E.g. Kill-selling Ad texts, etc.
Best Wishes
Asem
Tina Thompson
November 6, 2008Hey, I think it is great you make the time to do these. They are very helpful. Hope you are having fun.
Janis Pettit
November 6, 2008Working with affiliate programs that are offered on Clickbank is a quick way to get some of the statistics and research that Reed suggests as they offer statistics on all of the affiliate programs they have available.
You will need to research further though to learn about cookies, how often they pay and if they have a minimum amount of commission you must earn before they pay.
Thanks Reed for an informative post
Janis Pettit
admin
November 9, 2008@Ron thank you
@Bruno Yep there are way too many things to promote only promote products that help your customers and convert like MAD
@Dawn residual income is great
@Henrick thanks
@Floyd I think we will see a resurgence in the $7 type products due to the economy.
@Timothy awesome glad to hear it’s helping
@Bryan two tier’s are great
@Create I like paypal too
@John thanks I’m removing that other part of your comment though since it’s basically an ad.
@Mark thanks
@Jane most products are cookied I think it’s up to the merchant to put the information out to their affiliates
@Ernie that actually would be a good requirement if you are going to do PPC… it’s your money and you are building their business so they should do more to win over your investment. If you were a bank investing that kind of money into them they’d have to show you a lot of information.
@Ken lol. Odiogo does a nice job doesn’t it?
@goblogging those are a good starting point but you also want to make sure it converts
@normz2 thanks
@Residual thanks
@Geoff those kind of programs are awesome. A lot of the big marketers are doing that model now.
@Daniel agreed
@B&B keep us posted
@Damas I’m editing your comment. Just keep reading this blog and you’ll get plenty of tips
@John that’s a very good point
@Laurie Instant payment is great
@Sylvester I’ll keep that in mind for a future article
@Jussi agreed
@Nayanaka didn’t Laurie post the same thing?
@Ari for me the best traffic is still from joint ventures
@PV thanks
@Richard a team of writers 🙂
@Rivers thanks and it will definitely improve your odds of success
@Dan Agreed I RARELY pay for ANY products because I ASK for a review copy or I’m just given one while they try to woo me
@Asem good tips
@Tina thanks
@Janis thank you
Rick Eckel
November 10, 2008Thanks Reed. I have an opportunity that stacks up well by all your criteria — 50% payout; 22% conversion rate in personal development area. Highly experienced marketer. I’m still looking for more partners. Where arae the best places to advertise Joint Venture / Affiliate opportunities.
admin
November 10, 2008@Rick you can post your launch here http://productcalendar.com/post
Hj.Harith
November 18, 2008Thank you Reed Floren. I am not yet join in any affiliate programs.Reasons are I am not quite sure this online business really earned streaming of income. I need skill or knowledge
on how to op[erate online business efficiently first. Later I have to make choices the appropriete programs.I am Hj.Harith.email: hj.hamidh@yahoo.com
admin
November 18, 2008@HJ continue coming to this blog and you will learn more 🙂
delords
November 22, 2008Great Post Reed,
You got all the points on it.
delordss last blog post..What types of Affiliate Programs To Join
admin
November 26, 2008@delords thank you
ciska
March 16, 2009love your website, can you show me where to find information on manifesting money? thank you.
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