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Affiliate Marketing Programs

Evaluating The Potential For ...

Online affiliate Programs

Evaluating Potential Affiliate Marketing Programs is essential for a successful affiliate marketing business

Expanding your list of possible partners is not a difficult task, but it does require some knowledge and a systematic approach.

It is important to build your affiliate business on a solid foundation of quality merchant-partners with quality products. This is very important and is essential to your online affiliate programs success so find good programs and eliminate poor ones.

Watch for the following criteria as you evaluate potential affiliate marketing programs...

Positive attributes for Affiliate Marketing Programs are as follows....

* High quality product or service -- remember, it's your reputation that is on the line.
Don't recommend poor or low quality products or services

* Look at the Merchant's website and be sure that they have a good site that sells effectively.

* Make sure that there is the ability for your affiliate link to be directed straight to individual products, rather than just to the home page. Don't make your visitor have to find the product that you recommend, or your Conversion Rate will be lesser

* Check out the 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.

The Best Affiliate Marketing Programs offer Strong Affiliate Support...

These should include...

*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, which provides traffic-building and

sales tools such as Professional marketing materials like banners, videos etc

*A high-quality newsletter that educates and provides training.
Great online affiliate programs who offer support indicate a high degree of commitment to the program and its affiliates.

* The Best Affiliate Marketing Programs give Affiliates discount on products...

*Look for products that pay good commission -- hard goods have lower margins than digital ones. So their commissions will be lower
You should make at least 10% (hard good) or 20% (digital good) 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 usually offset by the higher sales volume.

*The affiliate marketing program must be free to join with no requirement to buy the product. I like to buy the product first in order to truly know the product however this is not essential

* Lifetime commission -- if the program pays a commission on future sales of other products to customers that you refer, this is a huge plus and a strong indicator of an excellent affiliate marketing program

* Lifetime cookie -- do you receive a commission if the person you referred returns and buys within one month? Three months? The cookie that tracks this should not expire. This policy should also be backed by database-matching -- that way, a merchant can still identify a customer should the cookie be deleted

* Two-tier commission -- if the program pays a commission on affiliates who join because of you, this is also great.

*Affiliate marketing programs that Restrict the number of affiliates -- you won't find many of these. But if you do find one, grab it.

*Look for a monthly payment, with reasonable minimum.

All those positive attributes don't need to be present but the more the better

Evaluating negative factors in Affiliate Marketing Programs......
Watch out for these negative factors...

* Slow and or poor support

*Unethical conduct of any kind

* Reports of late or lack of payments

* Allow spam, or seem to spam themselves

* Support, or are slow to condemn scumware programs that deprive
Hard working affiliates of their commissions.
* Defective affiliate-joining process and or clauses in the agreement that you find unacceptable.

For example... If lifetime customers are important to you, then a clause that allows unilateral termination or modification of the agreement at any time by the company, without just cause, effectively makes the lifetime commitment of no value.

Example #2 ... No exclusivity means that you should be allowed to represent more than one similar product vendor

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Your job in an affiliate marketing program is an important one.

You deliver high-value content that gains the confidence and trust of your visitors. You include recommendations and referrals to your new friends as part of your service and content. Recommending anything less than quality products is simply fraudulent.
Don't allow yourself to be bribed into recommending such product, in the long run, your reputation will be ruined. And so will your business.

If you find products that fit your theme but that don't deliver quality, contact them and offer to sell them advertising. This way, you don't compromise your ethics... your reputation. Because the customer recognizes advertising for what it is... a promotion.

On the other hand, when your visitors are rewarded repeatedly by your rich recommendations, their increasing like and respect of your judgment will keep them coming back for more!

Watch for these warning signs which where written by the experts at Sitesell, The world’s leader in affiliate marketing programs and top authority on business websites and education....

*"Pay-per-click" method of payment. In this method, you get paid whenever a visitor clicks on your link. No purchase or lead-generation necessary.

Unfortunately, it's wide open for abuse -- very sophisticated folks create incentives to get thousands of people to click on their links. But the visitors could care less about the products being promoted. It's virtually unstoppable. And merchants end up paying for nothing, so merchants cancel or change the program.

In theory, pay-per-click affiliate programs are a good idea. Unfortunately, they attract "scam artist affiliates." Sooner or later, merchants seem to throw in the towel against the onslaught. So be wary -- these kind of affiliate programs tend to dissolve or mutate into a different model.

* Multi-tier commission -- this is online MLM, which is perfectly legal. Do your due diligence to make sure, of course, that a multi-tier program is not an illegal pyramid scheme. If the "game" is to earn income by signing up others, you most likely are dealing with a pyramid. Many people confuse honest, legal MLM with dishonest, scammy pyramid schemes.

With MLM (also known as Network Marketing), it becomes as important to build a strong down line as it does to sell product. Also, MLM companies are subject to numerous regulations (to prevent them from becoming pyramids, basically). Not all online companies are complying (or even know about this!).

Watch out for a big shakeout with many of these companies going belly-up.
If multi-tier interests you, they recommend that you check out established offline MLMs that are now online.

Or... investigate all others extremely carefully before you decide to invest a lot of time in these.

*Watch out for poor or limited information about the affiliate marketing program available.

*Always check to determine that there are no dead links on merchant site and also determine that there is a clear anti-spamming policy visible on site.

* Avoid all Sites that promotes "get-rich-quick" gimmicks.

*Ensure that the affiliate marketing program is not financially unstable. You stand to lose a lot if a company goes under, especially if you were banking on lifetime customer/2-tier promises.

* Poor traffic stats, and low Google Page Rank score.

Tools like the Google Toolbar and Alexa can tell you a lot about a
Affiliate marketing programs that have little or no traffic, makes one wonder how successful can it really be?

Spend your time on smart, stable, ethical companies with great products

One of the top Affiliate Marketing Programs is the 5 Pillar Affiliate marketing programs for Sitesell.

As a 5 Pillar Affiliate you have the opportunity to promote the top e-business-building products in the world - and earn generous commissions while doing so! I have found this affiliate marketing program to be by far the best one on the net to date.

The 5 Pillar Affiliate program meets or exceeds all the positive points that where outlined above and therefore in my opinion is a very good choice for newbie’s or experienced affiliates

In the 5 Pillar Specific Marketing Strategies section, you'll find a growing selection of articles that focus solely on promotion. They may be excerpts from various 5P Reports or any other useful tips and techniques that will morph you into a high-earning affiliate.
This knowledge acquired through the ongoing affiliate training certainly prepares you for other affiliate marketing programs as well.