What to look for when choosing an affiliate program

Of course you may be tempted to pick the highest-paying

affiliate programs. But wait, there are more factors to consider
besides high commissions!

1. Is that product relevant to the "theme" of your site or blog?
Unrelated products on your site are extremely difficult to
market even if you've a highly successful site. They can even
make your site look unprofessional!

2. Does that product appeal to you personally? Or would you
use it yourself in the first place?

3. Do they have a good, compelling sales page in their affiliate
website that help you to convert visitors into sales?

4. How about a reliable tracking system that will credit you
for every sale? You'll definitely want affiliate programs that
have "cookies" encoded with your affiliate I.D. that are set
to last for a LONG TIME - at least a year or more. In this way
if they don't buy a product right away, you'll still get credited
for the referral when they do in the future, before those
"cookies" expire.

5. Do they provide you with marketing tools and resources to
promote their products? All good affiliate programs should
provide promotional tools like banner and text ads, email
promotions, and even informative articles because the amount
of money you can generate depends on how well you're able to
promote your products!

Picking a good affiliate program is not an easy task as it's
thought to be. It requires a lot of time to research before
making any decision. Research, research and research -
-This is the very FIRST step leading to a successful affiliate
marketing business.

Tip: Try and search for "top affiliate program directories" to
locate your "perfect" affiliate program(s). I'm listing 3 good
ones here for your reference:
http://www.associateprograms.com
http://www.refer-it.com
http://www.affiliatetip.com

Tags:
affiliate program
affiliate marketing