Choosing an Affiliate Program
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Products, Affiliate Programs
There are so many different affiliate programs available, that sometimes it can be hard to choose. While you can be involved in more than one affiliate program, you’ll want to be sure of a few things first before you decide to participate in one.
- Is it going to cost you anything to join? Many affiliate programs are completely free to join. Sometimes you’ll find people who have developed unique products and only allow those who have purchased a product to join their affiliate program. If you have the money to put forth for the product and a use for the product, then by all means purchase it. However, if you personally don’t have a need for the product there are many other affiliate programs available at no cost.
- When do they issue commission checks? Every program is different. Some will issue checks once a month or every quarter. Be sure to choose the one that fits your needs.
- Do you have to earn a minimum amount of commission before a check gets issued to you or can you set your own standard? Some programs only pay out when your commissions hit $50 while others will pay out as low as $10.
- How do they track referrals and how long do they stay in the system? Ideally you want real-time tracking but sometimes this is not always the case. It’s important, especially for your own testing purposes to know which links are getting the clicks and how many clicks it takes to actually get someone to purchase.
- How long are the cookies set for? Many affiliate programs have cookies that last for 30 days, some 90 days, some for a year and some for a lifetime. Still some only have it for a day. Typically website visitors who click on your link don’t make a purchase initially so you’ll want to be sure that when the day comes that they do in fact make the purchase, you get credit for it. If it’s only for a day, you’d do well to steer clear. If, however, you see a program offering lifetime cookies, then you’ve found a goldmine!
- Is the program one tier or two tiers? A single or one tier program only pays you for the business you have personally generated while a two tier program pays you for the business you brought them as well as pays you a commission on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsored into the program.
- Finally, what amount of commission is paid out to you? 2%? 5%? 50%? Even though you may at first be tempted to look at only those programs that pay a high amount of commission, keep in mind the products that your merchant has. 5% on a new computer that costs $2,000 is quite a bit more than 50% on a digital book.
These are just a few questions that you’d be wise to answer for yourself before you sign up to be an affiliate. You should be familiar with many of these aspects as they’ll help you make a more informed and educated decision.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Products, Affiliate Programs
You may have heard the term “affiliate marketing” and you may have even heard of people making tremendous amounts of money on the Internet from it.
First off, affiliate marketing is a huge business on the Internet. And there are many people, maybe just like you who have have heard the term but aren’t sure what it is or even how to participate in it.
To put it in a very tight nutshell, affiliate marketing is a cooperative effort between merchants and an affiliate. Now while that sounds like a very large statement, it’s not.
What this means is that you, as an affiliate, sign up and agree to market a product or service. When someone purchases a product or a service through the special link that is provided to you by the merchant, you get paid a commission from the merchant.
Every single day people just like you get interested in affiliate marketing for one reason or another. The most obvious reason is that it creates an additional source of income for you. There are people who have built entire businesses around simply marketing other people’s products and services.
But unfortunately, many of the people who do get involved in affiliate marketing, end up making mistakes and because of these mistakes, end up not making any money until they eventually quit.
What you’ll learn through this site are steps, ideas and techniques that you can use in order to become a successful affiliate marketer. Take your time and browse through the site, find topics that fit your interest and then learn from them and implement them.
The most important tip I can give you as an aspiring Affiliate marketer is to take action. Most often people fail simply because they learned everything they needed to but failed to take action.
Knowledge that sits in your head or on your hard-drive does not pay you an income.
