SO many affiliate programs - How to choose?

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There are thousands and thousands of affiliate programs out there, and all of them pay differently. How do you go about choosing which affiliate program to go with?

I'm not going to say I'm an expert, but here are my thoughts, and I'm hoping for you guys to help elaborate on my points?

I used to do affiliate marketing, and I looked carefully at who was managing the affiliate program. Whether it be commission junction or linkshare or someone else, I'd definitely prefer working with commission junction or linkshare because I know what I'm getting into.

Next, I look at the incentives. Am I getting money for the click? Am I getting money for the page view? Am I getting money in terms of % of the final sale? Am I getting a combination of 2 or 3 of them? Obviously, I want to choose the best paying programs, yet I want to choose a product or service that's relevant to my website so that people will actually click and possibly purchase what I'm advertising.

If I'm genuinely passionate about the product or service, it definitely helps. If I was caught advertising (via affiliate program) a product I didn't care about, my reputation is at stake. People will see me as a short term money hungry person rather than a trustworthy recommending internet user.

I often think that testing multiple affiliate programs has helped. I post a widget or ad on a specific product, and then I post a complimentary widget or ad that corresponds to that product. For example, let's say that I'm advertising a computer. Complimentary products I may also advertise would be speakers, wires, accessories, etc...

Next, assuming that I value my own reputation and that I actually like the products in which I'm advertising, I should make some positive mention of the product that I'm posting on my website. For example, if I'm advertising a computer, I might write a review on it + pictures to showcase why i liked it so much, only to post the affiliate link throughout the post and finally on the bottom.

Those are my thoughts, and I'm hoping for people to give feedback and comment on what I wrote, as well as new options and reasoning in choosing good affiliate programs and then making the most out of them!

Thanks! :)

~ Jessica Mah
Jessica Mah Meets World
[ Blog / Pro & Personal Life! ]
 


blah blah blah just pick one and go. sign-up for a few and compare offers. you will rarely find an affiliate promoting just one thing from one network.
 
yea just pick one you like. there is no secret to picking the right ones.
 
Like they said, you just need to pick on and try it. My fav company to deal with is copeac.
 
Don't put all of your eggs into one basket. Spread them out - network - run one offer from each network, if they are worth it. You will find out which networks you will want to stick with in the long run, and the ones that totally suck!
 
For me clickbank and 7 dollar offers.
always try to promote products with back end profit.
More profit to gain although the back end sales has lower percentage.
 
Try to find a market with less competition. But beware of merchants that never pay, so clickbank is still a good choice.
 
Look, when you're choosing an affiliate offer, keep your target audience in mind. Sell where people buy.

Are you promoting jewish dating services? Then understand that you may have a significant drop in traffic on Saturdays.

Can you get cheaper clicks on content networks? Or are the keywords you need to bid on "high paying" keywords and therefore attracting a lot of bid competition (and possibly spam/MFA pages)?

Shoemoney wants to you look at Google trends for "omaha steaks" to figure out where their affiliate program will really outperform. But when you see Nebraska come up in the top two spots on the list, you should also be asking yourself why the nation's second largest beef-producing state is searching for "omaha steaks", and the first largest producer isn't even on the list.

If you're pushing a video rental offer like blockbuster or netflix, are you bidding on keywords of movies that anyone can walk into their stores with their current membership and find (romantic comedy and such) or are you going after horror movies, concert dvds and foreign films (which are almost impossible to find in their brick-and-mortar locations)?
 
You clickbank whores - especially the guy that mentioned the $7 offers - I suggest you read more here and get a feel for the place... WickedFire is generally very anti ebooks.... you wouldn't want to get banned now would you?
 
You should do a basic research before you pick up one. Use goodkeywords software(free) to search for the keyword of the product you want to promote. Then If you want to promote through Adwords, search for that keyword on google and see how many adwords are there in competition. And observe the ads for sometime say a week. Even after a week the same ads are there that means there is money to be made. But don't go for most competed products that means if there are eight and more adwords ads you may have to take risks. These are all from my experiene from our adwords campaigns.
 
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The best way to choose affiliate programs is possibly to use an affiliate programs directory to find the sort of programs that are right for your site's niche, then go to a forum and ask about your chosen affiliate programs so you can see if they are reputable or not. While at the forums you can also ask what others think of them if they are using them or not and what their experiences have been.
 
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