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Guest post by Dave Martinez, the owner of PPC Fool.
When I first started affiliate marketing, I basically looked at one thing, how much were they paying? I was naive to say the least, and have since learned my lesson. Pay has its place, but there is much more to consider when looking at an offer to promote. Below are 7 key factors to consider when joining an affiliate program:
1. Tracking
Does the program offer tracking? Tracking is key in this business, and if you're not using it your flying blind. Most CPA networks offer this, and if it's just a lone company email the affiliate manager and ask them. With conversion tracking so easy to setup with a simple code on the landing page, this should be high up there in the priority list.
2. In Demand
Is the product or service in demand? This is an easy one, just because there is no competition is not necessarily a good thing. You want to promote an offer that is more than just 10 searches a month for the core keywords. If you're going to put a lot of time and money into promoting an offer you should be compensated for it.
3. Access to Affiliate Manager
You want to have a direct line to your affiliate manager, preferably by phone. To be able to call when you have issues, questions, or just need some pointers, it can only help.
4. Landing page
Very important. I remember one time I was promoting a biz opp, was sending 100's of clicks a day and my conversion was nil. Looking back on that campaign it is easy to see my inexperience at the time. The landing page design was horrible and unprofessional. It doesn't matter it they pay $100/lead, if their page doesn't convert consider an alternative offer. If you're looking for some good guidelines on how to make a killer landing page, check out my 10 Day Landing Page Series.
5. Will the offer last
While not a bad thing, is the offer just event focused, such as Valentine's day or Christmas offers or will the product always be in demand in season and out of season? Just something to consider.
6. Payout Frequency
How often do they pay? Can this be changed over time as you increase volume? Can you get a bump in payout at a certain levels of sales or leads?
I've seen some standalone programs that pay net 60 or 60 days after the month of which you made the sale in... unless you have a lot of capital you may want to renegotiate this or find a similar offer.
7. Sound product
Last is it a quality product and does it offer true value. It so much easier to promote an offer that you can support or have used in the past with a solid review. This will also help in refunds which can be another thing to consider. Do they absorb refunds or not? A quality product will have less refunds which will mean more money in your pocket!
Dave Martinez is the owner of PPC Fool, where he blogs on tips, strategies, and insight about making a living with pay per click and affiliate marketing.
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Yupz,. Nice articles
Top notch post and thanks for the series you did Dave
These are some awesome tips! Keep up the great work!
LaPrentiss
Great post. I have a few things to add
One of the biggest things overall to consider is:
8. CONVERSION RATES
One program may pay 15 per lead but convert for crap. Another only pays 10 but converts like crazy, so you generate more revenue with #2.
If you are doing retail products the other important points to add are:
9. Cookie length
10. Reversal rate
11. If they show a big 800#, do they do phone tracking?
12. Are there any other leaks like Adsense, other affiliate banners or advertising?
[...] affiliates – here’s a guest post from Jonathan Volk’s blog by Dave Martinez, “7 Things to Consider in an Affiliate Program“. He makes some good general points about things to evaluate before joining affiliate [...]
Thanks for the article, It was interested and with full of knowledge for me
Thanks guys …
There is definitely more than 7 things to consider, I was just trying to get the ball rolling so keep em coming
It’s good info for a noob like myself. Thanks.
Nice post, really need these advices. Thanks
Mostly affiliate programs are run by Clickbank which makes me unqualified for any affiliate program at all. At present Clickbank just not support my country, i hope that soon i Philippines will be included in the list so i can start my own campaign and start my renovation of the damage side of my house.
Another blog to subscribe to
Nice article.
[...] are trying to get into affiliate marketing (including myself) so you should probably check out “7 Things to Consider in an Affiliate Program” guest posted by Dave Martinez on [...]
Great list. One I always have trouble with is knowing, just by looking, if a companies landing page will convert. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with presell but, as with websites in general, I’m always surprised by what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes the crappiest looking sites seem to do really well while the great looking sites don’t do nearly as well. Same seems to go with landing pages too sometimes.
[...] http://www.jonathanvolk.com/affiliate-marketing/7-things-to-consider-in-an-affiliate-program.html [...]
Thanks for the tips