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Create A Better Living With Affiliate Marketing
Author: Rosalind Gardner
Many beginning affiliate marketers make the mistake of signing up for every program under the sun, then adding banners and buttons throughout their website without strategically thinking about their ultimate goal.
When looking for affiliate programs to work with, take the following advice very seriously:
Great Product
Only recommend products and services that you would be willing to pay for yourself. Frequently purchase and test products before listing them for sale on any of your websites.Stand-Alone Product
Refrain from sending visitors to websites which offer more products and services than the one linked from your site. Many times affiliates do not get credited with commissions on those "extra" sales. Don’t sign up for programs that also carry the same affiliate programs your websites promote: tat qualifies them as competitors, not affiliates.Type of Program
Pay-per-click or pay-per-lead programs usually pay pennies for each click through to their website. That means that you need tons of traffic to make paltry sums. Instead, choose pay-per-sale programs that pay a commission on every sale that is generated through a link from your website.High Commissions
Where all else is equal it shouldn’t be hard to decide whether to choose the program that pays 15% or the one that pays 50%.Negotiable Commissions
Most program managers will acknowledge you as a super-affiliate if and when you qualify. At this point, they may offer you a higher commission, anticipating that you will in turn promote their program more heavily. On the same note, you know when you are producing excellent sales for a company. At that time, you should negotiate a higher commission.High Quality Affiliate Interface
Few things are more frustrating in the affiliate world than not being able to access your stats, or having to jump through too many hoops to do so. The interface should be attractive, easy-to-navigate, and be on a fast server.Excellent Management
Who do you call when the affiliate statistics interface is down? The best companies take care of their affiliates by ensuring that their affiliate program managers are accessible and responsive. Before signing up for a program, make sure there are telephone and/or email contact numbers for webmasters listed on the website.
If only an email address is listed, send a question and see how long it takes to get a response. Then ask yourself if you had hundreds or thousands of dollars in outstanding earnings with that company, would you be comfortable with the length of time it took them to respond to that email?Real-time Statistics Reporting
Make sure that the first programs you sign up for offer real-time statistics reporting. If you are doing a big, expensive advertising campaign for one program in particular, you may want to check your statistics every day, if not several times in a day.Excellent Creative
If you plan to use graphic links, make sure the banners are attractive. Tacky banners make your website look unprofessional and untrustworthy.Long-lasting Cookies
A cookie "remembers" which visitors came from your website. For example, if cookies are set to only last a day, you won’t get credited for a sale, if your visitor who clicked through to the program yesterday didn’t buy the product until today. Look for cookies that are set to last at least several months.Low-Minimum Payout
One of the companies I promote has a thousand-dollar minimum payout, which means that I don’t get paid until I’ve generated $1000 in earnings. That’s fine if I can do that once every month or two, but suppose it takes a year? It’s better to look for minimum payouts in the $50 to $100 range.Payout Schedule
Payment schedules vary from once a week, to bi-weekly, to monthly, to quarterly. When choosing between programs, choose to receive payments more frequently.Build Niche Websites
Concentrate your advertising dollars on attracting highly targeted traffic and sell products and services only from “niche” websites.Include Personal Contact Information
When customers contact you directly, always respond. Whether it’s to give them the answer or to say you have forwarded their question to the main company so they company can answer their question, it let’s them know that you are real and reachable. It also builds confidence in your service and the affiliate program’s service.
Finally, you can avoid most affiliate program problems by reading the agreement from top to bottom before you signup.
After signing up for an “unknown” affiliate program (i.e. one that isn’t a household word either online or off,) don’t promote it too heavily. Monitor your statistics closely for clicks and sales while keeping track of payments. If a check doesn’t arrive on schedule, as stipulated in the affiliate agreement, get in touch with the program manager. If he or she doesn’t respond within 24 to 48 hours (on weekdays), remove the program’s links and don’t replace them until you receive an honest response and the check.
Read more on affiliate marketing
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