The growth of internet in the past few years and the opportunities it has thrown up for those who want to monetize on this growth is overwhelming. On top of all earning online opportunities are Affiliate Programs. Most of us get lost in the jungle of offers and just fail to recognize the right affiliate program that suits us.
So here are the 5 most important questions you should check before joining an affiliate program.
1.Does the affiliate program have products or services you can promote?
Before joining any affiliate program check the type of products or the services the program offers. If you use your web site or blog to promote make sure that the products are relevant to the content of your web site or blog post. A affiliate program may offer high commissions or have top quality branded products for affiliates to promote but if it does not correlate with your web site content there is little chance of making a sale.
Most often newbies join affiliate programs and then start building web sites around the products they promote but I think it should be the other way round, you should build a niche web site first and then find products to promote. You should also keep in mind how useful will be the products you promote. Step into your prospect costumers shoes and just think would the product really attract your customers? does it offer value for money?
2.Is it a reputed company?
Well you know why this question is so important. Nobody wants to be a victim of scam and loose money. If you enter into an scam affiliate program either you will be loosing money or you will be promoting products or services which victimizes your customers. So before joining an affiliate program you should check for the details of the company like
- Address of the company : Almost all scam affiliate programs do not have an office or official address.
- Contact information : All reputed companies have real persons whom you can contact through phone or email.
- How long they have been in this business : Reputed companies proudly state how long they have been involved and have future plans for growth.
- Affiliate agreement : Most reputed companies ask you to enter into an agreement and accept their terms and conditions.
- Legitimate business are accredited or listed with organization like Dun & Bradstreet or Better Business Bureau and will sport an authentication logo. Check out these credibility indicators.
3.Do you have to invest to take part in the program?
Most well known affiliate programs are free to join and participate. While some affiliate programs may ask you to pay a nominal fee to participate in their program, some other programs may require you purchase some of their products or service. Either way make sure that the company is reputed. If you are not sure about the company it is better not to sign up with these companies, or invest only the amount you can afford to lose.
4.How you get paid?
Take into account the following factors when you sign up.
- How the program compensates for your participation.
Most common types of compensation plans are
- PPC ( Pay per click ) - where you get paid when a visitor clicks on the ad you have placed on your web site. A prime example that comes to my mind is Google Ad words. In this type of plan the amount you get paid is normally very low, even as low as less then a dollar per click. Here the amount paid is dependent on the advertisers link clicked, where advertisers have agreed to pay an fixed amount per click. Some advertisers may pay more then other advertisers. So it all depends on your site visitor. Normally a web site or blog with high traffic is more suitable to this type program.
- PPL ( Pay per lead )- this is some what an extended version of PPC where you get paid when your site visitor (lead) takes some further action then just clicking a link. Further action may be something like filling out a form or subscribing to advertisers news letters etc. You are paid for referring the customer to the advertisers web site where the advertiser collects some information from the lead like collecting their names, email address and phone numbers. The advertiser normally pays a fixed amount (example $5) per lead even if the customer does not make an actual purchase from the advertiser.
- PPA ( Pay per action ) - Pay per action is the most common and lucrative type of affiliate program. Here you get paid when your lead actually buys products or services from the advertiser. The commission is higher then PPC or PPL programs. The payment may be an fixed amount ( example $10 ) or a percentage of the selling price ( example 20% on $60 ) per sale.
Further the affiliate programs can be classified as single-tire, two-tire or multi tire programs.
Single-tire affiliate programs are the most straight forward. Here the affiliate is paid for direct transactions. All the earnings will come from your own efforts and sales. This type of program is productive if you can generate sales on your own.
Two-tire affiliate programs offers rewards to affiliates for recruiting even more affiliates along with the commissions affiliates generate by their own efforts. Some affiliate programs may pay a flat fee ( say $10 for referring another affiliate who does a sale of $50 per month). Other programs may offer an percentage on the commissions generated by the refereed affiliate ( say 5% commission on the affiliate earnings ). This type of program is useful if you are proficient in referring more members to an affiliate program. Normally the first level commissions are low in two-tire programs then the single-tire programs. Some may not like the idea of recruiting your own competitors in the program. But if you think the other way you will be paid for efforts of others.
A multi-tire affiliate program is an extent ion of two-tire programs where you get paid several levels deep. Think of it as an pyramid scheme. Most of these programs require you and your downline to buy or invest in the program so most affiliates are not attracted to such programs. Having said that you may also find multi-tire affiliate programs where you need not buy or invest in an program but make sales to earn commission and you get a portion of commission from the sales generated by your downline members. So if you can build an highly efficient and big downline team you will soon be getting good commission. Most internet marketing scams are multi-tired programs, so beware and check the program details as suggested in question no.2 above before joining a program and paying money to participate in the program.
5. What others say about the program?
Do some research yourself about the program. A quick google search often revels the reputation of the program. Many if deceived by an affiliate program may have complained or posted negative comments on various forums and dissuasion boards. You can do a quick search by including word "scam" or "fraud" with the program name like "scam xxx affiliate program". A little research may save your hard earned money and invaluable time and effort.
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