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Prune by Eliminating High-Risk Programs
Find the good programs and eliminate the dogs by considering the following plus signs, minus signs, and red flags. Let’s start with the plus signs, signified by + (which means “good things to look for”). Here they are, in the approximate order of importance...
+ High quality product or service - Remember, it’s your reputation that is on the line (and online!). Don’t recommend products that UNDERdeliver.
+ Merchant has a good site that sells effectively.
+ Ability for affiliate to link straight to individual products, rather than just to the home page. (If the visitor has to find the product that you recommend, your Conversion Rate plummets.)
+ Type of payment model... Pay-per-sale and pay-per-lead are good. This is true “performance marketing.” If your referred visitor delivers the desired response, you get paid. What about “pay-per-click?” See red flags below.
+ Affiliate Support...
• Accurate, reliable, real-time, online accounting, preferably with some kind of ability to “audit” by spot-checking
• Detailed traffic and linking stats
• Notification by e-mail when a sale is made
• Useful marketing assistance -- provides traffic-building and sales-getting tools
• Quality newsletter that educates, trains, and provides accounting
• Professional marketing materials available
• Affiliates receive discount on products
Great affiliate support is important for a “between the lines” reason, too. It indicates a high degree of commitment to the program and its affiliates.
+ Pays good commission - Hard goods have lower margins than digital ones so their commissions will be lower. Still, you should make at least 10% (hard goods) or 20% (digital goods) on any product that you recommend. Don’t be scared off by low-priced products if they offer a good % commission -- the lower dollar value per sale is offset by the higher sales volume.
+ Must be free (no charge) to join, no need to buy the product.
+ Lifetime commission -- If the program pays a commission on future sales of other products to customers that you refer, this is a huge plus.
+ Two-tier commission - If the program pays a commission on affiliates who join because of you, this is also great.
+ Lifetime cookie - Do you receive a commission
