Choosing The Best Affiliate Marketing Network Program For You
With thousands, if not millions, of affiliate marketing network programs online today, choosing the best ones for you requires more time and dedication than it was a few years ago. You need to commit the same time and effort in selecting your affiliate program, much like when you do your market research.
Ask questions and seek out answers because this will become the basis of your first major business decision. A decision that may well be the most crucial point of your affiliate marketing journey.
With so many of these affiliate marketing network programs, how can I tell which one is best for me?
Unfortunately, no one can answer this question other than yourself. The answer lies within you and you need to find it first before moving on.
Your current situation, ability and resources can tell you what affiliate marketing program is best fitted to you at the moment.
Always ask yourself these questions before you start promoting a certain product:
Does the program requires affiliate to pay before you can promote them?
This is the first thing that you should look for. Pretty basic actually, but others fall prey to programs that promise huge amount of commissions in exchange of an up-front fee. Most affiliate marketing programs today are free of charge, so why pay when you can find another one that offers the same results with no fee?
Is the merchant or company running the affiliate program reputable and of good standing?
The next important thing to know when looking for affiliate programs.
Try imagining this….you promote a program with all your effort and resources…
Payday comes, you wait for your payment, but no check arrived…
You called the company’s support, but no one answered…
You emailed the admin, but no one replied…
After a little research, you found out that several others have been scammed by this company.
Avoid this mistake by spending some time to study the company that you’re gonna work with as an affiliate. Know if it’s really a solid company.
How long have they been operating? How much are they earning per year? Are there any complaints and disputes against it? Research before you promote and not after you have been scammed!
How much are they willing to share their profits?
Don’t settle for programs offering 25-50% commission to affiliates (except for physical products – expect 10 to 20%), there are several out there that offers as much as 75% and even 100%! If the product is of top quality and have a high price tag, I’ll go with 50%-60% share.
How often do you like to be paid?
Affiliate programs are all different. There are programs who pay longer than others. Some pay monthly, while some pay daily. Choose the one that is suited for you. While you’re at it, review the program’s minimum payment amount. Check if you can achieve it with your current resources and ability.
Is the affiliate program capable of accurately tracking your referrals and how long are they cookied?
Before signing up with an affiliate program, read every line of text as much as you can. Know how long are your referral cookies stored, how are they tracking it, can they provide you accurate statistics of your promotions, and so on.
Cookie duration is important to you as an affiliate. Know if you are still credited for the sale on a referral that you made last few months ago. Look for possible loopholes that can hurt your affiliate commissions!
Does the program have a decent conversion rate?
So that you’ll know the average number of traffic or visitors it takes to produce one sale. Approach the product owner or affiliate manager and ask the program’s conversion rate.
If they don’t want to provide one or tell you that they don’t know, drop the program and move on to another one that can give you this number. This is important as it will let you know how profitable the product is. You can also derive how much traffic you must drive to their sales page or your squeeze page, before you can generate a sale.
There are several factors to consider before you can choose the best program that will really work for you but the answers to these set of questions will be sufficient enough to keep you right on track.
Weed out those that are not suited for you and focus only on the ones that satisfies your standards. It won’t be long before that affiliate paycheck hits your mailbox.
Good luck!
