Affiliate Marketing Secrets

Is the information, such as the terms and conditions, the affiliate agreement, and the commission structure made available to you either before or during the sign up process? If so, continue on, after reading that information of course. Next, do you receive an email immediately upon sign up?

You should receive an email – even if the email is just to inform you that the company has a manual selection process for affiliates (which would be good for you if you are selected). If there is no manual selection, and the whole thing is automated, you should immediately receive your affiliate link information, as well as login information for the affiliate area of the company’s website.

In the affiliates area you should again find your affiliate link, as well as a way to edit your contact or payment information, and a way to see how many sales you have made, and possibly how many clicks or leads came through your affiliate link. Of course, you should also see records concerning commissions that are owed to you, as well as commissions that have been paid to you.

A good program will provide you with creatives to use, even if you opt not to use them. These include banners, text ads, articles, sales letters, ebooks, and other promotional materials. If these things are not provided, it does not necessarily mean that it isn’t a good program – but the best programs do provide these things.

The biggest test, of course, will come when it is time to receive your commission check. If the check comes on time, and in the right amount, and all of the above conditions apply, you’ve found a winning program.

Point 23: Avoid Low Commissions

Money is what it is all about. Why else would you promote someone else’s product? If it wasn’t for the money, or the potential to earn the money, you wouldn’t do it, and neither would most other people.

So why would you go with a program that offers low commissions on already low-priced products? Remember that you will put forth a lot of time and energy, and possibly even your own money, to promote this program. If the commission is low, such as 20%, of a product that is already low priced, such as $50, this probably isn’t worth your time, unless you consider $10 worth the time and effort you are about to put forth.

Ideally, you should look for a payout of 50% to 75% for low priced products. Some affiliate program owners will offer an even bigger commission because they will make their money on a backend product.

High ticket items should have a commission payout between 20% and 50%. As above, for a $50 product at 20%, you would only make ten bucks. But for a product that costs $1000, you would make $200 per sale, and this is worth your time, especially if you can make four or five sales per week.

Again, figure out how much you need to earn each month. Get a total figure, then determine what products you can realistically afford to market, and how many sales will be required to make your needed income. You really just cannot afford to market some products simply because the commissions won’t pay you enough.

If you find a product that you really believe in, and you feel it would be beneficial to your customers, contact the product owner. Tell him what you can do, and ask him if he or she is open to a higher commission rate agreement with you. Better yet, join the low commission affiliate program and show them what you can do for a couple of months. Just don’t do this for more than a couple of months without getting your commission percentage raised!

Also look to see if higher commissions are offered for a higher number of sales, and see what the payout is for sales made by affiliates who sign up under you. Take all of this into account when making your choices, and also consider whether or not there will be residual income.

Next: Pitfalls to Avoid Part 2