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How to
choose the affiliate program
that's right for you.
by Phil Wiley
Affiliate and referral programs are all the
rage online. And
with good reason. They're a chance for us little guys to
make some money. Whether we make pocket money
or serious money depends on just two things:
a. the quality of the product or service we're offering. It's got to be something the
online community want or needs.
and
b. how good we are at promoting it.
One without the other is useless. No matter how hard we
promote a product, if few people have a want or need
for it, we'll not make much of an income. And if we have
associated ourselves with a great product, we might as well
not bother getting out of bed in the morning if we're not
going to put a lot of time, effort, and thought into promoting it.
But how do we choose which affiliate program to sign up
with? There are two ways:
1. In your travels around the business or special interest
sites on the Web you'll most likely come across people
promoting interesting programs. The odds are that they're
being paid commission to promote these programs. Simply
click on the banner or link of the one's you're interested
in and scout around the site you're sent to for details on
becoming a seller yourself.
2. The other, and easiest way, is to visit a web site
specializing in listing and evaluating affiliate and
referral programs. The best sites of this kind offer lots
of free advice and reviews/opinions of the schemes.
Try these listing sites for starters
http://www.ozemedia.com/affiliate1.htm
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com
http://searchpoint.com/money/
http://www.markwelch.com/bannerad/
http://www.refer-it.com.
These sites catalog referral programs breaking them down
into categories such as books, music, adult, computer, etc.
And they provide rating guides to the programs. There's also
publish information on how to start your own affiliate program
- which is well beyond the scope of this article.
Promote, Promote, Promote.
When you've decided on a program or two to promote,
that's exactly what you have to do. Promote it. You
will get exactly nowhere if all you do is place a banner
on your site and hope people click on it. You need to
actively promote the sites you're linking to by doing things
like writing recommendations, telling people on your mailing
lists about it, etc.
Is it legitimate?
When you become involved with an affiliate program and
link to it from your site, you are asking people to trust you
and your commerce selection. It is very important to make
sure that the business you are becoming affiliated with is
legitimate. And read their Affiliate Agreement carefully.
How often do they pay? Can you view your stats on a
daily basis to see how your promotions are going? Make
sure you read the fine print in the Agreement. Print out
a hard copy and keep it in a safe place.
Be aware that many companies will only pay you when you've
generated over $50 or even $100 in commission. That might
not sound much but if your site only gets a few hits it could take
a long time to generate that much money.
Be very wary of sites that ask you to pay to become an
associate/affiliate. If you have to buy a copy of the book
or software first that's quite reasonable.
To see the affiliate programs I'm associated with and
recommend please click here
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