Choosing An Affiliate Program

Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 7:09 am

This is a guest post from LaTease Rikard of TEASA’S BLOG MARKETING TIPS & TECHNIQUES

Know Who You’re Dealing With

It is difficult if not impossible in some cases to know if an affiliate program is established, credible and trustworthy just by looking at the site and reading a corporate profile. That is specifically the reason why it is necessary to research the company behind the affiliate program using tools provided by organizations such as BBBOnline, TrustGauge.com and Alexa, all of which offer some form of rating or feedback on companies from affiliates and general users alike.

Offer the Best To Be The Best

While most individual affiliate programs or publisher networks do not allow you to test or try out the product or services free of charge, it is crucial that you know what you are selling is in demand and of good quality. Otherwise, you will not be able to accurately describe the benefits to prospects or if it is a product in a low demand industry you will simply not be able to sell enough to justify your investment of time and resources. Search in the same manner as a consumer would if they were looking for the product or service

Showing You The Money

The reason website owners integrate affiliate programs into their site in the first place is to make money. The payment or commissions you receive, whether it be a per sale, per lead or per visit (click), should be a deciding factor but not the ultimate factor in your affiliate program selection process. Most affiliate networks limit which affiliates or publishers can receive which type of commission structure, usually reserving the per click option to highly productive publishers.

Time To Choose
Now that you are more prepared to make an informed decision you can start researching what will work best on your own site. Search through affiliate program directories such as associateprograms.com or join popular publisher networks such as Commission Junction or pepperjamnetwork.com.
You will easily find a program or group of programs that work in tandem with what you are already selling or that work seamlessly with existing content. If you choose correctly, affiliate program riches may be yours. Good Luck.