Thursday, November 21, 2024

Which Affiliate Programs Should You Choose?

February 11, 2011 by  
Filed under Affiliate Marketing

Naturally, the first filter that you ought to apply to any potential affiliate programs is relevance. Whilst thinking about which affiliate programs you ought to choose, you have to judge how that affiliate program fits into your web site. The reason for this is that visitors to your web site will expect to see something on the topic matter.

If I Google ‘teddy bears’ and when I arrive at the site, there are only ads for rocking horses, Forex and winter cruises, I am not going to be best pleased. The first principle is to offer people what they are searching for – stay focused.

Does the supplier charge anything? Some suppliers may try to charge you a ‘joining fee’, a ‘registration fee’ or ‘handling fee’ – simply give them a wide berth. It ought to be free to join an affiliate scheme, you should not have to pay to have the right to sell someone else’s goods.

In a similar vein, what is the minimum payout level? A lot of places will not pay out less than $50, some even $100. This is a rip off. It is a factor to help you choose between one supplier and another – a deciding factor. If you are using three or four suppliers on your site, you may have to earn $300-400 before you are paid out!

Do they charge to process your payment too? They should not actually, does your employer make you pay to receive your wages? It is the same principle. And how often do they pay out, weekly, monthly, quarterly?

Do you like their creatives, that is their banners and other adverts? There is a great deal of proof that the regular, old fashioned banner ad of 468×60 is not very effective any more. Look for variety – boxes and skyscrapers. Otherwise, are you able to create your own?

Do they publish statistics on how effective their creatives are? What is the average conversion rate for each banner? That is, how many views does it take to get a hit and how many hits to get a sale?

Do they permit you to build a downline? That is, if someone visits your site and decides to sell orchids as well, will you be given a part of the pay out on that affiliates sales? You ought to be.

What is the amount of the average sale and how much pay out will you make on that? Actually, you want to be getting at least a few dollars a sale; a few cents is no use, unless you are receiving thousands of visitors a day.

Make up a couple of questions and send them to ‘support’. Do they give satisfactory solutions? Are they quick to respond? And last but not least, would you by anything from the firm? Does their site look professional? Is the sales page convincing?

There is such a great deal of choice when it comes to choosing a supplier that you can afford to have high standards. Take your time, go for the best, and you are less likely to have problems afterwards.

Owen Jones, the autor of this article, writes on many subjects, but is now involved with the SEO Content. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at PLR Articles

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