Thursday, May 17, 2007

Do Your Homework Before You Join Any Affiliate Programs

6 tips to take note before you join any affiliate programs, this will save you time, energy and money.

Thousands upon thousands affiliate programs are available in the market. Selecting the best affiliate programs to promote can be a daunting task. If you promote the wrong affiliate programs, you can waste your precious time, energy and money. Here are 6 factors to look out for in choosing the best affiliate programs.

1. Search The Market,Find Out If There Is A Demand
Search the market to see if there is a demand for the product. Simply put, do people want your product? Know what range of people will buy your product, like the age group and gender. Where to find this group of people. Do a Google search and also get a Keyword Tool to check the number of people searching for this kind of products. Know your market first before you promote.First the market then the supply.If you give the supply without a demand, you will have a hard time.

2. Check Out The Sales Page
Check out the sales page of that product. First of all, ask yourself, will you buy from this website? Does it attract or entice you to want to part with your money to buy the product? Is it easy to order, and does this site provide payment processors that are prominent?
Sometimes your gut feeling can tell. If you do not feel like you can trust this site, and if it is too good to be true, you maybe right, give it a miss.

3. Commission Pay Out, Not Lesser Then 50%
How much is the company willing to pay their affiliates is very important, because you will be spending your time, effort and money to advertise and promote their products. It has to be a fair exchange. Normally 50% and above will be a good percentage.

4. Quality Of Product
Will you buy the product yourself? Have you heard any good and bad reviews of the products? No one product is perfect, so there maybe some bad reports on the product. When comparing the good reports with the bad ones, if they are 90% good and only 10% bad, then go ahead and promote. There is no perfect product.


5. Make Sure The Helpdesk/Supportdesk Is Supportive.
There is nothing more frustrating then contacting the helpdesk/support desk with a question and you only receive a reply few weeks later, and worst if you do not get a reply at all. One way to test if this company is supportive to their affiliates and customers, write in and ask questions and see how fast you get a reply and what type of answer they are giving you. Even if they reply you, but the answer is abrupt, showing no sign of helpfulness and politeness, run ten miles away from this company, you will regret having dealings with them when you encounter serious problem and need their help later.

6. Tracking
Ad tracking is very vital to your business. It is always good to have a software to track the results of the sales of the products you promote. Why is that so? Because if you do not know how much sales it generates out of the number of visitors you sent to the merchant's sales page, you are actually throwing darts in the dark, hoping to hit the target without knowing where you are aiming. For all you know, you maybe throwing your darts into the drain.
Example, if you sent 500 visitors to the sales pages and one 1 bought, you know there is something wrong, that means the conversion rate is lousy. 1 to 2% is reasonable. If you do not that, dump the product and move on to the other products. Time and energy is money, so know where you are throwing your darts.

Hope you will start on the right note after considering doing all the above. Wishing you success in your Affiliate Marketing.

Copyright © Gamy Rachel


Gamy Rachel is a home based business entrepreneur. In the financial industry for 20 years, now does online business.
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