Choosing the right affiliate program can be the difference between you buying a vacation house in Mexico and you sitting at home wondering how on earth you are going to pay for this months groceries. If you pick the wrong affiliate program you will be left with nothing, wondering how some guys do so easily while you are sitting there piling all of your money into advertising and getting none of it back. Trust me, you need to pick an affiliate program that suits your needs, so you can take that vacation and buy that car that you've always wanted, as well as spend more time with those you love. You don't necessarily need to work harder, you just need to work smarter.
So how do you know which affiliate program to choose? Just follow these 7 tips and you should be able to choose an affiliate program that makes you money.
1. The Program Must Pay Well If you only earn $ 2 commission on the sale of a product, then you have to be getting pretty darn cheap leads if you are even going to break even, never mind make a profit. Now, some products are easier to sell because of less competition and such, but you need to make sure that you are going to be paid enough for your efforts.
2. The Program Must Convert Well If you get $ 300 commissions, but the program does not convert, then you won't make any sales. Make sure that the product is something that people actually want, and that the sales page actually converts well, otherwise you could send 10,000 people to the page and still make no money whatsoever.
3. The Program Must Offer Support You should be able to contact the merchant for help if you need it. Merchants should be incredibly happy to help you, because the more successful you are, the more successful they are. If they don't offer good support, stay away from the program.
4. The Program Should Provide Marketing Tools Many programs offer banners, example blog reviews, press releases, PPC ads, ezine ads, and signature ads. These are very helpful for affiliates, especially ones just starting out. But make sure that when you use things like press releases, blog reviews and PPC ads that you are not using them exactly as the merchant displays them, because other people will be doing that so it will not be effective, and it will be noticeable that you didn't write it. Sometimes the merchant even runs a small affiliate training program that is free for their affiliates. These programs are great because that means that they actually want their affiliates to succeed, and they often know what they are doing and therefore can provide better support.
5. Two-Tier or Recurring These two types of affiliate programs can prove to be very profitable. With two-tier affiliate programs you earn money if the people you refer also refer people. That means you make more money, without any extra effort. Recurring commissions, such as monthly membership sites, are great because once you referred a customer, you get paid for as long as that person stays with that membership site. If it is a really good membership site, then people will stay with it for a long time.
6. Program Offers Performance Incentives Some affiliate programs will offer higher commissions if you refer more people. Some will offer cash bonuses if sell a certain amount of products. Some will offer gifts such as laptops or iPods or something like that. And some programs even run contests where the top affiliate can win things like a Ferrari. Now, you obviously won't win these types of contests on your first try, but these are incentives for you and others to do well, and when you reach certain points you are rewarded even more for your efforts.
7. Program Should Have a Low Payment Threshold When you sign up for an affiliate program you generally have to select a payment threshold such as $ 25, $ 50, or $ 100, meaning you don't get paid unless you make that much money or more. Watch out for affiliate programs where the minimum payment threshold is really high, they often have no intention of ever paying you!
Now, where can you find these types of affiliate programs? Clickbank is a great place where you can find amazing affiliate programs that will offer each of the things above, and Clickbank has been proven to be reliable. If you follow these guidelines when choosing an affiliate program, then you will have a much higher chance of succeeding. Now, I won't lie to you, just picking the right program isn't going to make you rich.