Affiliate Marketing Money Making Tips

What should you consider when choosing an affiliate program? You need to think about two key things: what business are you in and what can the affiliate program provide to your customers.

No matter what business you are in, the largest investment you make will be customer acquisition. If you have your own product, and have acquired a base of satisfied customers, then single product affiliate programs could work very well for you.

However, if your business is acquiring customers for other businesses, that is, purely affiliate programs, then a better choice for you could be affiliate programs with multiple products or services. This will help you to capitalise on your investment in customer acquisition.

The key to choosing successfully is to ensure that the affiliate program offers products that meet the needs of your potential customers. Coupled with this is the need for the products to be high quality and for the supplier to provide excellent customer service. Remember, your credibility is on the line every time you refer someone to buy through your affiliate relationship.

Some of the other factors I consider when evaluating affiliate programs include:

Is the affiliate program a reputable business? You can check out a business you are considering a relationship with in variety of ways. Talk to the Better Business Bureau in your local area or a similar body. In addition, I find web sites that monitor affiliate programs to be worth looking at. The best I have found is Associate Programs. Allan Gardyne pulls no punches and tells it as it is.

Does the program enable you to share in the lifetime value of the customer? Great programs will give you commissions on all future purchases of the customers you introduce. This is where the real profits are. These types of programs, in effect, allow you to partner with the supplier.

Does the program reward you for introducing other affiliates? This type of program is commonly referred to as a two-tier program. Often your customer may become an affiliate also and you will be rewarded for this.

Is the supplier interested in your success as an affiliate? The top affiliate programs engage in a process of coaching or information sharing to help you succeed. Affiliates are provided with regular newsletters outlining what is working for successful affiliates and providing updates and details on new products.

Is the commission reasonable? Commission rates on commodity products such as books and CDs are low. This is because there is very little margin in the products due to competition. Look for products that have a commission rate of 15% or more that are not commodities - that way you will be better able to recoup your customer acquisition investment.

Are statistics provided? The higher the level of statistics provided, the better off you are. This will enable you to measure the success of your marketing efforts and to determine the best places to invest your marketing dollars. Insufficient statistics is a sign that the affiliate program is not sufficiently interested in your success.

Are new products being developed regularly? To get the full value from lifetime commissions, new products need to be introduced on a regular basis. Without this, lifetime commissions can be worthless. Also, look for consistent high quality in new products introduced.

How frequently are commissions paid? The more frequently commissions are paid, the better off you are. Good quality affiliate programs will pay you monthly or fortnightly. In some situations, commissions are not paid until a certain level is reached. If the program you are considering has this requirement, check how many sales need to be made before the level is reached.

Have you read the affiliate agreement? This is a key area that you should look at. Some affiliate agreements are totally in favour of the supplier. Others are more balanced. Some agreements restrict your ability to promote similar products from other suppliers. Most agreements have anti-spam provisions. Look for agreements that are fair and that do not stack everything against you as the affiliate.

While there are other factors that can be considered when choosing an affiliate program, following the suggestions above will help you to make superior business choices that will lead to long-term success.

The majority of affiliates are not earning much money from the affiliate programs they belong to. It doesn't have to be this way. Here are a few tips and techniques that will help you to maximise the commissions you receive from the affiliate programs you belong to.

Choose your affiliate programs with care.

The most critical thing you need to do is choose your associations with care. If you do this wrong, you limit your ability to earn good commissions before you even start.

The programs you choose must fit with the product or service range that you are offering. It is important that they are natural add ons to what you are selling. Alternatively, they must complement the theme of your site. For example, if you offer web design services, a natural add on could be an affiliate program for web hosting.

If you do not offer your own products or services, then your web site needs to convey useful information on a topic of your interest. Affiliate programs relating to this topic of interest would be good add ons for your site. For example, if you have a poetry site, useful affiliate programs could be poetry books, greeting cards, or flowers.

Limit your choice of affiliate programs initially so you can concentrate your efforts on learning how to market them effectively. Having too many programs will dilute your focus and make it harder to learn what works best. Once you are successfully selling and making reasonable commissions from your initial choices, you are then in a better position to choose new programs to add to your site.

Don't choose based on what pays the highest commission. Instead, put yourself in the shoes of your customer and choose what would best serve their needs. When you do this, you will choose programs that will sell very well and make you more commission in the long run.

Personal recommendations.

Once you have settled on a small list of programs you think are suitable, buy the product or service yourself before making your final choice. This will enable you to test the service delivery and product quality to ensure that it is totally suitable for you to recommend to your customers and visitors.

Your credibility with your customers will be damaged if your refer them to another merchant who does not provide them with good service or product quality. Therefore, always test the product or service before you give a personal recommendation.

Most marketing experts say that the best way to sell products through an affiliate association is by personal recommendation. Once you have used the product, you are then able to write a review that tells your customers or visitors what you liked about it and how it helped you. A personal recommendation will sell more than any advertisement.

Opt In Lists v. Web Sites

Your advertising message will produce a stronger response from people that already know and trust you. Therefore, your own opt in list or ezine is going to be more effective than your web site at generating commissions. If you don't have a means of staying in contact with your customers or visitors, you are severely limiting your income producing potential.

Banner links on web sites are less effective than text links. More people will click on a text link than a banner. With text links, you are able to pre-qualify people before they visit your affiliate partner's site, and you will find that more convert to sales.

Advertising

To supplement your promotional activities, consider advertising that gets people to visit the details of the affiliate program on your site, or alternatively, sends them direct to the affiliate site using your affiliate link. Paid ads in ezines can be relatively cheap and can provide you with highly targeted prospects for your promoted product or service.

Many ezines accept paid advertising. Check out The Directory of Ezines which has a directory of newsletters and ezines that accept paid advertising. Another option to consider for low cost ezine advertising is the 2 Bucks an Ad Program.

Free classified ads are another option but are less effective than targeted ezine advertising. USFreeAds is the first choice for free ads. Also, you can buy a paid listing to get better exposure. Also, check out The Grandfather Of All Links FREE Advertising Directory which has over 10,000 + places to advertise for free.

Track Your Results

Always test and track the results of the ads and promotions you run. Use the information gained to fine tune your efforts. If you don't track your results, you will not know what is or is not working for you. The best decisions are made based on good information.

A good service I use to help me track my advertising and promotion results is provided by Google Analytics. It is free to sign up - click here for more details.

Conclusion

You can maximise your commissions from affiliate programs. You need to carefully choose the programs you will participate in based on what would best suit your customers or visitors. A personal recommendation is the most effective selling tool especially if it appears in your own ezine or opt-in list. Other advertising tools should also be used to enhance your earning potential. Always test and track your results so that you can maximise what works best for you.