Internet Marketing Strategy--Affiliate Program Essentials You Should Know

Internet Marketing Strategy

Your concern here is whether you'll be paid on time and if at all. Obviously if the company in question is an eBay or Amazon, you don't have to worry.

However if the merchant in question is unknown, that's when you may have some concerns about fly-by-night scenarios or dishonesty.
Solution:

Join well established affiliate networks such as Commission Junction or ClickBank that host thousands of merchant affiliate programs and oversee the commission payout to affiliates.

ClickBank deals with digital products such as downloadable eBooks and software.

Commission Junction on the other hand deals more with tangible material products that require shipping by the merchant. It also deals with digital items too.

Another great affiliate network is Clixgalore.com

What You Should Know Before Joining An Affiliate Program

Any Contact Information?

If you can't find any contact information...MOVE ON!

How Long Before They Respond To Your Request To Join?

If you don't get a response within 72 hours (3 business days) pass on that particular program. Their tardiness probably extends across board and who's to say they'll be more responsive about your payments or when you have a real problem.

Where's The Affiliate Agreement?

If the program in question doesn't have an agreement...MOVE ON.
No agreement leaves you exposed to being cheated out of your hard earned commissions.

What Does The Agreement Say?

Okay, nobody likes reading those long-winded go-on-forever agreements; however, in this case make a point of doing so!
If you don't, you could be in for a rather nasty surprise later on. Let's say for example you invest several hundred dollars promoting a particular product and your returns from that effort are a couple of thousand dollars.
Most likely, you'd want to get paid as soon as possible. But if you didn't read the agreement which stated that the company pays quarterly, your money would be tied up and you'd have nobody but yourself to blame.

Agreement Termination Terms.

Most agreements have a termination clause detailing the terms under which you or the company can end the affiliation. It is ill-advised for you to sign up for a program that binds you to a particular company for a specific period of time. Also be wary of programs that demand exclusivity; such programs generally prohibit you from promoting similar products (from a competitor merchant) on the same site, thereby effectively cutting into your bottom line.

Does The Affiliate Program Require A Fee To Join?

Affiliate programs are free to join; after all, you're in effect advertising for the merchant.
If a program requires you to pay a fee to join, it's not an affiliate program but rather a Multi-Level Marketing scheme ( MLM).

What Type Of Affiliate Program Is It?

There're basically three types of affiliate programs: pay-per-sale, pay-per-lead and pay-per-click.
Pay-Per-Sale: Such programs pay either a fixed cash amount or a fixed percentage for sales generated by your promotional efforts.

Pay-Per-Lead: Here you earn a set amount whenever a customer sent by you fills out a survey, requests a quote or obtains some information.

Pay-Per-Click: These are similar to pay-per-lead programs and you are paid each time one of your visitors clicks on a link through to the merchant's site.

Pay-Per-Lead and Pay-Per-Click: affiliate programs require large volumes of traffic to generate any substantial revenue so it's probably better for you to opt for the Pay-Per-Sale type of program. This type is performance based and gives you a much better chance of making serious money!

What Is The Commission Rate?

The commission rate and structure will determine how much money you make. Generally the best paying programs pay you a commission of 50% for every sale. But you have to dig a little deeper to make sure you really understand what you have to do before you get that 50% commission.

For example some pay-per-lead programs promise a 50% commission payout per application (let's say credit card applications), but you only get that commission after said applicant has been approved.

Do You Get Recurring Sales?

The best kind of affiliate program entitles you to recurring sales.
What this means is that as long as the customer you referred keeps ordering the product (such as a website hosting plan), you keep getting paid every month!

This is what is known as residual sales. So be on the lookout for affiliate programs offering residual commissions. It's a great way to make effortless, automated monthly cash!

Does The Program Pay Lifetime Commissions?

A program that pays lifetime commissions pays you (the affiliate) a commission for each and every product that your referred customer buys from that merchant.
This includes any applicable residual commissions. This kind of commission structure is the best there is.

Does the Program Use Cookies to Track Sales And How Long Do The Cookies Last?

So what are cookies? Simply put, a cookie is a harmless piece of computer code or script that captures harmless information (such as identifying a computer through current and subsequent visits, websites visited and date of visit).

This is of importance to you because this is how a merchant can tell that a particular customer was referred by you, thus ensuring you get your commission. The importance of cookies does not stop there. There're cookies and there are cookies! Cookies are coded to expire after a set period of time. So if a merchant supplies you (the affiliate) with cookies programmed to expire after 120 days, this means that if one of your referrals makes a purchase anytime within those 120 days, you'll get credited for that sale and get paid your commission.

Remember, it takes at least 7 exposures to a product before a person is ready to buy! So the longer lasting the cookie, the better...at least from your point of view as an affiliate.

Do You Get To See Your Sales Statistics In Real Time?

Make sure any affiliate program you sign up for offers real-time sales tracking (within seconds to one hour) or almost real-time sales tracking. This is important because you need to be able to assess the success of a particular promotion campaign.

Does The Affiliate Program Offer sales Tools?

A well-organized and professional affiliate program offers their affiliates advertising copy, banner ads and/or item-specific links. Sales tools such as these make your job easier. If a program does not offer these it's probably best for you to look at other affiliate programs.

When Do You Get Paid? How Do You Get Paid?

Make sure you know how often the affiliate program pays: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly. Also consider what currency you're going to get paid in. The big plus here is, if you're located outside of the United States, you're still going to be paid in U.S. Dollars as most internet companies transact in U.S. Dollars.

What Kind Of Billing Mechanism Is In Place?

To avoid payment issues, it's better to join programs that are part of a bigger affiliate network (such as Commission Junction or ClickBank). Such affiliate networks make sure that each and every merchant who is part of their network has sufficient funds in its account to pay its affiliates on time. When you sign up for a program that handles payment and everything else itself, you lack this kind of security. Though having said that, you should also be aware that there’re plenty of excellent independent affiliate programs you can join without any concerns.
If you have your doubts do some research and see what other people have to say about the program.

Minimum Payout Amount?

Most programs require you to earn a set minimum amount before they'll issue you a check or deposit earnings directly into your bank account. (Note: These days most affiliate programs offer you the option to be paid via PayPal and all you need is a working email account and your current bank account.

Choose Quality Products

It’s extremely important to ensure that the products you choose to promote do what they claim to do and aren’t duds.

Why?

Because if you promote useless products not only are you going to get a lot of returns but more importantly you are going to lose customer credibility and trust. And that by the way is the quickest way to kill your fledgling business! So how do you determine that a product is of good quality?

Well the most credible way is to try it out yourself but at the beginning this really isn’t practicable since you probably don’t have that kind of money to throw around.
The other option is to see which programs are being extensively promoted and getting good reviews.

Note though, that just because a program is getting heavily promoted doesn’t necessarily mean it’s of good quality. I personally have bought a few products through ClickBank on the strength of their “best-seller” reputation only to return them because they were useless.

So why would so many affiliate marketers promote such products?

Because they are expensive and thereby have high commission payouts to the affiliates promoting them!

Does The Affiliate Program Have A Quality Landing Page?

The layout of the landing page for the product which you’re promoting will determine how much of the traffic you send ultimately become buyers.
The important things to consider are:

1. Does the landing page have compelling and motivational content (text)?
2. Does the landing page look attractive and professional?
3. Does the sales copy move you…if it makes you want to buy the product then there’s a good chance that the people you’re sending will have the same reaction.

Does The Affiliate Program Offer Excellent Promotional Tools?

The best affiliate programs offer superb marketing tools to help you promote their products. And so they should…after all it's in their interest to see you succeed. When you do well—they (the merchants) do well. It's a win-win situation for everybody.
Great promotional tools are intuitive and easy to set up (in other words we aren't talking about some steep learning curve here) and consist of inspiring copy (text to help sell the product) and/or attractive graphics or banners.

I think it is prudent for me to add here that the most successful affiliates do not rely on the generic promotional tools supplied by the merchant. They know that thousands of other affiliates are promoting the same product and so if they wish to standout they require unique copy (words) and imagery to inspire the jaded multitude surfing the web! Remember the next time you start questioning why you are struggling to churn out your own original inspiring copy.

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