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Which Affiliate Program Should You Choose

It’s a common question that people face with – there are so many affiliate programs, which one should you choose to join?

I’m going to give you an outline of the decisions you should make to help you choose the right affiliate program in this article. Don’t worry if you can’t remember the whole outline, as time goes by, you’ll be able to ask these questions naturally as I have as an affiliate. Let’s begin.

  1. Is there a cost involved in joining as an affiliate?
  2. What is the frequency of the commission payment?
  3. How much is the minimum pay out?
  4. What is the conversion ratio of the sales page?
  5. How long will you stay credited for the sale?
  6. What are the affiliate statistics available for you?
  7. Is it a one tier, two tier or multi tier program?
  8. How much is the commission?
  9. Who are you promoting?
  10. What is the refund rate?

First, is there a cost involved in joining as an affiliate?

Most online affiliate programs offered today are free of charge – if there’s a cost involved in joining as an affiliate, find out if there’s any benefits for you if you do become an affiliate yourself.

Next, you also want to know the frequency of the commission payment.

There are affiliate programs that pay you automatically and there are those that pay in different timings – once a month, twice a month, quarterly, et cetera. The great thing about affiliate programs is that you get paid automatically, the drawback is that you need to fulfill the terms and conditions. Which brings me to my next point…

How much is the minimum pay out?

Some affiliate programs require a minimum earned amount of commission before the check is issued out. Sometimes, there is also a minimum requirement of a few different credit card purchases – this is to protect the product owner if someone purchases with his own credit card to get a huge discount via the commission payout.

What is the conversion ratio of the sales page?

This is an extremely important information to you as an affiliate. The conversion ratio gives you an idea of how many people you have to send to the sales page in order to generate a sale. Experienced product owners should have already done the testing themselves so they can tell you the conversion ratio of their sales page.

How long will you stay credited for the sale?

It’s common that people DON’T buy on the very first visit to the page. So, you want to know how long will the duration be. You need to be confident that you will be credited for the sale when people you send to the program either buy now or later.

What are the affiliate statistics available for you?

This is another important piece of information that you should know. A good affiliate program will be able to give you detailed information about how many people have seen the sales page with your affiliate link, how many people have bought it, how many impressions made with the banner or text link, et cetera.

If you have a lot of hits on the sales page with your affiliate link and no one is buying, you might want to reconsider either sending more targeted traffic or changing to promote another program as the sales page is not converting for you – either as a software issue or the sales letter issue.

Is it a one tier, two tier or multi tier program?

One tier means that you are paid for the first purchase. A two tier means that you are paid for the first purchase and if someone who has bought as an affiliate you’ve sponsored recommends someone else to buy, you also get paid for that sale. A multi tier program means that you get paid for several levels even after the second tier.

How much is the commission?

This is the FIRST thing that people usually look at but I put this point so far down here because this is a “blinding” factor for many people. Affiliate programs can pay very high percentages on the first sale (like 70% to 80%) but if there product is $7, you’ll be paid only $4.90 or $5.60.

If the product though is about $100, even if the commission is 50%, you get paid $50.

So, do your due diligence and calculate how much you will make per sale. It makes more sense to promote something that pays you more, doesn’t it?

Who are you promoting?

If you are using pay-per-click or any other paid advertisement to promote the affiliate program, this may not be that important to you. However, if you are using blogging methods or using a list to send people to the affiliate sales page, this question is important to you.

Because your name is attached to the recommendation, it’s important to find out if the person’s product that you are promoting is an honest business person with good values and information. People automatically link your name to the other person that you promote.

Lastly, what is the refund rate?

This is also important to know because if the product is horrible or of low quality, there will be a high refund rate. If you’ve been promoting a product with a high refund rate, all the commission you’ve earned as an affiliate will go down the drain once there’s a refund.

Not to mention that your name will also be tarnished because you promoted a lousy product to people who have placed a trust in your recommendation if you promoted from your list or blog.

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Filed under: Affiliate Marketing

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