How Do I Chose An Affiliate Programme?

Before you join an affiliate programme, it's important that you do some research. Outlined below are a few basic questions that you should ask..

Is the product relevant to your target market?

There's really no point in joining any affiliate programme unless the products that you will be promoting are closely matched to your target market. You need to be absolutely sure that your target group will be willing to pay for the products on offer. This is also a good time to check out any competitive products.

Will it cost you anything to join?

Most affiliate programmes being offered today are absolutely free of charge. If you are asked to pay to join, then I would seriously consider walking away immediately.

When do they issue the commission checks?

We're in this business to make some money and getting paid regularly and promptly is an important aspect to consider. Some affiliate networks issue their checks once a month, every quarter, etc. Select the one that suits the needs of your business. Many affiliate programmes are setting a minimum earned commission amount that an affiliate must meet or exceed for their checks to be issued. If your earnings are going to be help up for a lengthy period of time then you are going to have to fund the expenses involved in promoting that programme. If you invest in PPC, then this could tie up a lot of your cash!

What is the hit per sale ratio?

This is the average number of hits to a banner or text link it takes to generate a sale based on all affiliate statistics. This factor is extremely important because this will tell you how much traffic you must generate before you can earn a commission from the sale. If you are paying for traffic, it's critically important that you know the breakeven point.

How are referrals from an affiliate’s site tracked and for how long do they remain in the system?

You need to be confident on the programme enough to track those people you refer from your site. This is the only way that you can get credit for a sale. The period of time that those people stay in the system is also important. This is because some visitors do not buy initially but may want to return later to make the purchase. You need to know if you will still get credit for the sale if it is completed months from your initial referral.

What are the kinds of affiliate stats available?

Your choice of affiliate programme should be capable of offering detailed stats. They should be available online anytime you decide to check them out. Constantly checking your individual stats is important to know how many impressions, hits and sales are already generated from your site. Impressions are the number of times the banner or text link was viewed by a visitor of your site. A hit is the one clicking on the banner or text links.

Does the affiliate programme also pay for the hits and impressions besides the commissions on sales?

It is important that impressions and hits are also paid, as this will add to the earnings you get from the sales commission. This is especially important if the programme you are in offers low sales to be able to hit ratio.

Who is the online retailer?

Find out whom you are doing business with and make sure that it's really a solid company. Get to know the products they are selling and be sure to calculate the average sales price for the products you wish to promote. The more you know about the retailer offering you the affiliate programme, the easier it will be for you to know if that programme is really suited to your brand and your site.

Is the affiliate a one tier or two tier programme?

A single tier programme pays you only for the business you yourself have generated. A two tier programme pays you for the business, plus it also pays you a commission on the on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor in your programme. Some two-tier programmes are even paying small fees on each new affiliate you sponsor. More like a recruitment fee. Some payment processors (PayPal can be quite severe about this) do not approve of two tier programmes, so be sure to check that any programme that you join is approved by your payment processor.

Lastly, what is the amount of commission paid?

20% – 80% (and some cases, 100%!) is the commission paid by most programmes. .01% – .05% is the amount paid for each hit. If you find a programme that also pays for impressions, the amount paid is not much at all. As you can see from the figures, you will now understand why the average sales amount and hit to sale ratio is important.

These are just some of the questions that you ask before you enter into an affiliate programme. If the answers cause you any concern whatsoever, then look more closely. Use your favourite search engine to look for discussions about the affiliate network (The words "scam", "rip off" and "problems with" combined with the name of the affiliate network can return interesting results).

It's your time and money that you putting at risk so be sure that you minimizing that risk by thoroughly checking an affiliate programme out before making your choice.