Affiliate Marketing

So Many Affiliate Programs! Which One Do I Choose?

Ask questions first before you join an affiliate program. Gather as much information as possible on that affiliate program you would like to suscribe to. Pay close attention to the details in the affiliate program's offer, it will cost you dearly later on if you don't take the screening process seriously.

Do you have to pay for anything to get in? Serious Affiliate programs nowadays don't ask for any payment to join in. Thus why would you want to go for one that does ask for your money?

How often do they send out the commission checks? Each program has its own rules. Some issue their checks once a month, every quarter, etc. Pick the affiliate program that fits your expectation on that important question. Most affiliate programs fix a minimum amount that an affiliate must meet or exceed in order for their checks to be issued.

What is the hit per sale ratio? This is the average number of hits to a banner or text link it takes to generate a sale based on all affiliate statistics. It is obviously a crucial element to focus on as it will give you a clear idea of what kind of traffic you should be looking to achieve in order to reach a certain amount of commissions on sales.

How are referrals from an affiliate's site tracked and for how long do they remain in the system? You really have to trust the affiliate program to correctly track the visitors you send them through your website. This is the only way that you can credit for a sale. It is also very important to find out how long these visitors you're sending remain in the system for. Most of the time your visitors will click on your affiliate link but won't want to buy the product straight away.What if some visitors decide to buy the product weeks or even months after they first clicked on your banner or text link? Would they still be considered as your affiliates? You need an answer to that.

What sorts of statistics do you have at your disposal? The program you are considering should definitely provide detailed statistics. Not only that, but you should be able to check your stats in real time whenever you want on the website. You have to be constantly aware of how many impressions, hits and sales are being generated directly from your site, and that can only be possible through the service provided by your affiliate program. Impressions are the number of times the banner or text link was viewed by a visitor of your site. As soon as a visitor decides to click on that text link or banner, we count that as a "hit".

Does the affiliate program only pay commissions on sales or does it have a payment plan for hits and impressions as well ? It is important that impressions and hits are also paid, as this will add to the earnings you get from the sales commission. This is especially important if the program you are in offers a low sales to hit ratio.

Who is the online retailer? Find out whom you are doing business with to know if it is really a solid company. Focus on the products they're promoting and the amount of money they're actually making. The more you know about the retailer offering you the affiliate program, the easier it will be for you to know if that program is really for you and your site.

Is the program two tier or only one tier ? What a single-tiers program means is that you'll earn a revenue only for the sales that have been generated by you. A two tier program pays you for the business, plus it also pays you a commission on the on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor in your program. Some two-tier programs are even paying small fees on each new affiliate you sponsor. More like a recruitment fee.

Lastly, what is the amount of commission paid? The average should be around 5% to 20% commissions on sales. You could also expect each and every hit to pay .01% to .05%. If you can digg an affiliate program that also pays for impressions, the amount paid is not much at all. These numbers just give you a better idea of why the hit/sale ratio and the average sales amount are abolutely key when assessing a program's attractiveness and potential.

I think i have proven in this article that one of the most important keys to achieving great results in the affiliate industry is finding the right affiliate program to join. Two affiliate marketing packages are known to teach people through videos all the tools necessary to make it big in the affiliate industry. The first package is "Tycoon Cashflow", you can find a great review of it in the article entitled "Tycoon Cashflow Scam?", and the second one is The Affiliate Code, entirely reviewed in the article "The Affiliate Code Scam?"