Choosing the Best Affiliate Programs for Your Website

 
Which company has the best affiliate program? How do I choose the best affiliate program? Can you help me pick an affiliate program? I am often asked these questions. And, the answer many people expect is : the program that pays the most. However, the point that many rookie affiliates miss is that just because mortgage, gambling, and credit card programs are paying the most per sale or per lead dosen't mean that you will ever make any money promoting their products. In fact, the overwhelming majority of affiliates never earn a dime. Most are lured in by the promise of easy riches, discover that it's not so easy, shortly thereafter, and then give up before ever earning their first paycheck.

So, how do you earn that first paycheck from an affiliate program?

1. Pick an affiliate program that fits the theme of your site. This is obvious, but as I stated above, many people are lured in by the temptations of quick and easy money from higher paying programs. You should never have to change the content of your website to match your affiliate program, either. Make the programs work for you, not against you.

2. Choose a program that pays per sale over per lead. Some affiliate programs pay a percentage for every sale made and some affiliate programs pay per lead, or a certain action taken by the prospective customer, such as filling out a loan application. The per lead programs seem like they should have the higher conversion rates, but this is just not true. I've repeatedly had more success with pay per sale, rather than per lead. My theory is that people are bombarded with these forms and applications and sales pitches everyday, so they tend to block them out. Time is extremely valuable, especially in today's society. To get credit for a sale with these programs, people must invest time that they simply don't have or don't want to use signing up for these offers. It is much easier just to buy something online, than it is to invest time online doing work. That's why information products sell so well online, despite the fact that many times the information for sale is available free online, if you have the time to spend gathering it.

3. Pick an affiliate program that offers a wide variety of items for sale and preferably, one that offers dynamic content ads. You should always pay attention to what's hot and don't be afraid to rotate items that you promote. Just because something sold well yesterday, dosen't mean it will sell well today or tomorrow. If you run a website that promotes books, for example, you would probably want to rotate into your website ads promoting the current week's bestsellers. Visitors to your site will thank you for the fresh content, even if it is an advertisement. The easiest way to do this is with an affiliate program that delivers dynamically generated ads based on your established criteria.

4. Choose a well-known merchant. Trust is a very important factor in converting sales. More times than not, a customer is going to buy from the merchant that they know and recognize. Many smaller merchants will increase the percentage they offer to affiliates as a way of try and drive more traffic to their site and to promote their brand. Not surprisingly, many of these merchants come and go. It's safer and more profitable to go with the big names. You're also more likely to get paid (and on time!) by these merchants.

5. Pick an affiliate program that sells products that you have tried and like. If you have had a good experience making a purchase from a company, see if they have an affiliate program you can join. It is much easier to promote a product that you like, and your product endorsement will come across as more authentic. And, if the visitor to your site tries and like the product as well, you gain instant credibility and trust, which will lead to future sales.

Hopefully, these tips will help you when deciding which products to promote on your site.

About the Author

Justin Hallman writes for www.publishprofits.com

 Justin Hallman

More Articles 

7 Ways To Put Your Affiliate Income On Steroids - Cornell Griffiths
As an affiliate, have you ever out of frustration wondered why your sales don't reflect the effort you're putting out? Chances are one of THE biggest mistakes you're making is that you're using the same standard banners, classifieds and articles...

How To Profit From Affiliate Programs - Keegan Michaels
The beauty of the Internet is you can own your own business and earn good money without spending much time at it. You don't have to mind the store or keep office hours. You don't even have to be there to answer the phone. I've known any number of...

12 Awesome Ways To increase Your Affiliate Commissions! - Jennifer Schilling
Participate in web discussion boards and online forums. When I first joined an affiliate program, I read as much information as possible in the discussion boards http://www.sfidboard.com . This is a great discussion board to lurk in and...

Your Affiliate Web Site Is Built – Now What? - Vickie J Scanlon
When I first got my web site built, I thought I finally I had a presence on-line. Wrong! I soon found out that I needed someone to host my site, and I needed a domain name. This, I found, was my moment of utter confusion. And my first thought was...

Affiliate Marketing What Is It And Why Use It? - Stephen Warren
Affiliate Marketing is having Affiliates do your Marketing for you. What I mean by Affiliate is someone who tells people about your product/service and you pay them for a desired response, such as a purchase. Affiliate Marketing is one of the...

Tracker Outdoors Affiliate Program - David Selman Tracker Outdoors com
Join the Tracker-Outdoors.com affiliate program and start earning today! We are looking for partners to promote hunting and fishing classified advertising and other products and services. We are adding new products and services all the time for...

Special Alert For Affiliates And Subscribers - Affiliate Showcase
Special Alert for Affiliates and Subscribers: A few days ago I was contacted by a trusted source on the web. He had just put the finishing touches on something that was in the works for years. He wrote, "Please just take a peek at the website, it's...

Understanding Affiliate Programs - Sharon Housley
Affiliate programs are commonly misunderstood, in order to understand affiliate programs lets start with terminology. For clarification purposes, an affiliate is defined as any "referrer" or website that promotes a product in an effort to earn...

Why do many people fail in Affiliate Marketing! - Jonathon White
Affiliate marketing has been around on the Web for quite sometime now, but there are still a lot of people who doesn't know much or even nothing about it. Most of the people that don't know about affiliate marketing and has just discovered it...

How affiliates can subsidise all their purchases using customer reciprocation. - michael lever
Copyright 2005 Michael Lever Imagine if you had received a subsidy for every online purchase you've ever made? As an affiliate marketer, how would you like to earn sales commission each time you purchase from any website? How many...