Top Tips for Choosing an Affiliate Product to Market

Affiliate programs are a great way to add to that revenue stream you are creating. But beware. All affiliate programs are not created equal.

 

However, they all have the advantage of having a product they created so that you don't have to. They also take care of orders, customer service, and making sure that you get paid.

 

1. The affiliate program should sync with your site.

 

Please, don't be writing all about internet marketing, and setting up blogs, and affiliate marketing, and then sell products for dogs on there. If you have an interest in dogs, then create a different site. Choose affiliate programs that have products for you to promote that are related to the content of your site. If you are in a really tight niche and at a loss for an affiliate, you can search "your niche keyword + affiliate." If nothing shows up then you need to move on to another niche.

 

2. The affiliate product should pay a high commission.

 

Many of the affiliate products being promoted these days are digital products - mostly e-books. These are incredibly inexpensive to produce!

 

Although the creator may have spent some time and money creating the product, once that is done there is very little cost for the product to be transferred. These usually have a very nice commission percentage. Products that must be manufactured and shipped will have a lower commission.

 

3. The affiliate program should have a two-tier program.

 

All that means is that you get paid a little bit more. Your first tier will be what you get paid for promoting the product and creating a sale. The second tier is what you get paid for enrolling another affiliate in the program. You then get a percentage of his sales, also.

 

4. The affiliate program should have more than one product.

 

With only one product, the sale is made, and your customer has no reason to return so you have no hope of more commissions from that customer.

 

If the affiliate program has a line of products, then the happy customer will return again and again, and with the keeping of cookies, the affiliate will track the sale to you and you will be paid.

 

5. The affiliate program should keep your customers cookies.

 

When your customer visits the affiliate site, their program will retain the information that you sent that particular customer by recording a "cookie" for that computer. Most programs will keep cookies for at least 30 days. Actually, this is not very long as many people do not purchase until they have looked at something 7 times. A good length of time would be 90 days. Some programs are really good and will keep cookies for a year or even a lifetime.

 

6. The affiliate program offers great marketing support.

 

Being able to promote any product well comes from good marketing tools. Your affiliate should provide you with a large choice of text links, as well as codes for images and banners. Many will even add some e-mail promotions and a few articles you can use or rewrite. Pre-written ads and sales letters are something else that can be added to the mix. The more tools available, the better your chances of success.