Not choosing the right Affiliate Programs

Learning to choose the right Affiliate Program can mean the difference between success & failure in the Affiliate Marketing world. Hype plays a big part in this.

If a product is popular or getting a lot of press then of course you’re going to want to promote it? But, unless you’re quick off the mark chances are you’ll already be out bid or out ranked by experienced affiliate marketers who have already capitalised on it.

The key to choosing the right affiliate programs is experimentation, knowledge & your ability to know when enough is enough.

It really also depends on the methods you’re using to promote the affiliate products. If you’re trying to promote affiliate products on your website you will find it much easier to narrow down the possible affiliate programs, however you won’t have as much choice & possibly may not even find an affiliate program that suits your niche.

For example if you run a website orientated to Mobile Phones you may decide to run some Azoogleads Ringtone Offers, or if you run a Business Forum you might run a program like Goto Meeting.

When choosing an affiliate program I’ll normally look at a few key factors:

1. Would I buy the Product myself?
2. Is the product good value for money?
3. Is there something in this product that they can’t get anywhere else, cheaper?

I’ll then look a bit more indepth & do some research on:

1. The Competition
2. The ROI (Return on Investment)
3. The Landing Page

I’ll also look at affiliate programs that only sell one particular product versus those that allow you to promote multiple products.

An example of an all rounded affiliate program is Adult Friend Finder. I’ve been promoting these guys for a while now & have found a number of things:

1. Good Conversions
2. Good Clickthrough Rate (Due to the Geo-IP Location Scripts)
3. Good Payouts

Again it depends on the type of website you have, but generally you can always find a solid affiliate like Adult Friend Finder that will act as a good source of residual income to your other monetization methods.

The key to mastering the art of choosing affiliate programs is difficult, don’t expect to learn it overnight, it takes experimentation & testing until you get it right. But once you do get it just right, you can sit back & let it become a solid earner for you for years to come. I guess that’s what we all strive for

If any of you guys have had success with a particular affiliate program I’d love to hear from you, I’ve been testing a lot of Commission Junction Advertisers lately & hope to post results soon