What to look for in an affiliate program

By Affilorama Group
What to look for in an affiliate program

 

The first thing to look at is, is there an affiliate program that you are interested in promoting?

You could find a market, then look for an affiliate program in that market first, but I like to browse through affiliate programs first, then check out the market itself.

High payouts

  • Digital products
    • 60-75% If it's a one time sale
    • 40% If it's a recurring billing product
    • $1 or more if it is a zip code offer (at a cost per acquisition network, such as Azoogle or CPA Empire)
    • $1 or more if it is an email based CPA offer (at a cost per aquisition network)
  • Physical Products
    • At least $40 per sale (or 50%). For example a $400 television, if it is paying $40 commission, then this is worth looking at, or if an $80 mp3 player is paying $40 commission, then this is worth looking at too.

"Gravity"

In Cickbank each product comes with a 'gravity' rating.

  • High Gravity (e.g. 20+): Indicates lots of affiliates have managed to make a sale recently (but take care if it is an IM product as that can also mean that a lot of people have been buying through their own affiliate link (not likely in niche markets, such as dog training).
  • Low Gravity (e.g. < 20): All products have to start somewhere and that doesn't mean that it won't be profitable (if it has low gravity), but you have to be good at spotting a product that will convert well.

If the sales copy looks poor and unconvincing, then you probably wouldn't want to experiment in promoting a low gravity product. The advantage if you do pick a good one is that it can mean that you have less competition.

The next step is to find out if there is a market for the product.

It's very important that lots of people are searching for that product, and it is especially good if there are lots of niched search terms.

For example: If you search freekeywords.wordtracker.com, you'll find that there is a relatively low market for the 'singstar guide' search terms, so you probably wouldn't waste your time promoting a Singstar Guide product (unless you already have an existing mailing list to do with computer games or singing, in which case you'd make a judgement call).

But you might find that there are a lot of people searching for 'world of warcraft guide' and even better, that there are a lot of related search terms, like 'wow guide' and 'world of warcraft gold guide', and 'horde leveling guide' and so on.

Another example of a search term with lots of niched search terms is 'Dog Training'. There are many breeds of dogs, and types of dog problems, for example 'german shepherd training', 'dog digging', 'boxer dog training', 'stop pitbull aggression' and so on.

The next thing I like to look for is, are there many people competing in this market? If I search for lots of the different search terms to do with a market, I prefer markets that have a lot of competitors bidding on the different google adwords listings. I know that if others are paying money in that market (especially if there are lots of others in there), then it is probably a profitable market worth me looking into further.

Sure there may be a lot of profitable search terms for me to advertise on that others haven't yet thought of, but if there isn't anyone advertising on the move obvious search terms, such as 'dog training', then there is a good chance that it is an unprofitable market and I should be cautious.

The final thing that you could consider, it's not 100% necessary, but it is worth considering... Are there multiple products that you can sell in this market?

The reason that you may wish to look at that is that if you are planning on building a mailing list, then you might plan on selling lots of products to the same list. For example, if you are promoting dating products, you might sell people a product about how to attract the opposite sex, and then 2 weeks later in your mailing list sequence, you might promote a 'how to gain self confidence' product, then later you might promote a 'how to start conversations' product, and so forth. The number of products available for you to promote in a market can lead you get more excited about a particular market.

 

Photo: Booleansplit

1 Comments
alethia may hines 15 years ago
Hi, I'm new to all this but i decided to do it becuz i feel the timing is right, at least for me. I'm a 46 yo nurse of 11 years with still 20 years left to retire. I'm already burning out physically, mentally,and spiritually. I love what I do, but it's killing me slowly. I want to retire myself from the rat-race in 5 years, that is my goal. I want to enjoy my life, or at least upgrade the quality of it. I plan to use any vehicle necessary to do that starting with affilliate marketing. I've utilized the internet for years, browsing, shopping, researching websites and I've always seen at the bottom of the sites the word "affiliate" but never knew what it meant. I though it was just a link to another site associated with the one I was on. Until one day I was on a wonderful website and as i was surfing thru the pages, there was a phrase that caught my eye, "how to make money as an affiliate with us." There was a link to a page that decribed affiliate marketing and how to link to their site thru your webpage and make money. i was blown away by this. I thought of how many websites I promoted by word-of-mouth to all my friends, family and associates over the years and didn't make ONE CENT from it. All that FREE marketing and NO PROFIT!! I decided then that I will become an affiliate for the businesses that I enjoy and patronize online and offline as well. I just needed thr right information and resources before i jump right in. And then I rec'd an e-mail from Affiliorama. It is just what i need. I just purchased the AffilioBluePrint and will utilize and maximize everything it has to offer so that i can be successful in this endeavor. Thank you, Mr. Ling, for this great idea.