Wednesday, July 30, 2008

CHOSE AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM


So you want to choose an affiliate program or are you already involved in one?

These are six tips you must understand deeply. But first, understand that affiliate programs work just like network marketing. I said it works like it because it involves down-lines.

Now to get started. Once you understand these tips and use them wisely, you would make a real success out of the affiliate program you choose.

1.Choose the Right Affiliate Program.

Before you pick an Affiliate program, make double sure it is the right one. Check the company's profile. You cannot be in a moving vehicle and remain stagnant. If your affiliate program is one that makes steady progress, you also make progress. If it is stagnant, you inevitably will be stagnant. Check for the company's age. Companies in their first two years pay high, but they face the risk of quitting all too soon. They are but infants. Companies in their first seven years are more likely to be stable. Older companies are reliable. Very reliable. They have a track record which you can easily check out and have good organisation built from years of existence.

2.What are the Companies' Products.

Please be very careful. Only a thin line separates Multi-level Marketing (MLM) or affiliate programs from illegality. You are however safe if the company has a product it sells. Never join a pyramid scheme. I am not an expert at that but I suppose pyramid schemes are scams. If the company does not offer a product or service, you might as well forget it.

3.Check the Compensation Plan.

Your primary reason for joining an affiliate program is to make money! Should I say that again? To make money! So please, check the compensation plan. Make sure it suits you. When dose the company pay? At what rate? How does the company pay? If it doesn't go down well with you, just forget it and find yourself another affiliate program with which you feel comfortable.

Note however that even if the commission schedule is small but sure, the work you do can help you blow it all up. Think of $1 in 1000 places ($1000). It can be achieved weekly. You can realise that with almost all affiliate programs.

The bottom line, choose a program that suits you.

4.Join Free Programs But....
A lot of affiliate programs allow you to join for free. I suggest you join the free ones. My reason is; you can easily leave without much loss. I feel sorry for people who have tried several programs and paid heavily just to realise it is not the right one. But if you think you can afford it, then the choice is yours.

Once you've made a choice, remember these last two tips!

5.Build Your Team of Affiliates.

This can be the most excruciating part of it all, but once you have a team of down-lines who are active, it is well worth it.

Always remember, "for every twelve, there is always a Judas." There will always be bad apples in a barrel. Find the good ones, train them, help them and you have simply helped yourself.

How do you know the good ones? Simple; watch out for those that ask questions, contact you and fulfil all requirements in short periods of time. Go for them and you are building a money spinning business.

6.Put Yourself in the Shoes of Those you Want to Recruit.

Make things easy for them. Put together all the information and deliver it to them. I know it took you sometime getting the information. Help them get it in a shorter time. Probably in few hours. Contact them always. Answer their questions. Give them all the help you can. Show them what to do and help them do it right.

Remember, you help them; you simply help yourself. Put yourself in their shoes and do exactly what you would have loved if you were in their shoes.

Succeed With Affiliate Programs

Dear friends, when it comes to promoting affiliate programs
we all follow a certain defined process. We first go to
google.com ,type affiliate programs in the search field. When
the results get displayed we look for "high paying" affiliate
programs. By "high paying" I mean those who pay 25% commissions.

Then we visit each and every website listed and join the
programs becuse they are free! to join. We put all sorts of
banners and text ads on our links page and expect to see a
check in our mail box the next morning.

Well, I am here going to reveal a very different way of
promoting affiliate programs. Let us revise the process
one-by-one.

Step 1> Search for affiliate programs with your favorite
search engine. Look for only those affiliate programs whcich
have products which interests you. For example if you are
interested in "radio controlled airplanes" then look for such
products first. Don't start with promoting "herbal shampoos"
or "yoga cd's" just because they pay 40% commissions.

Since you already know a little about rc planes it wiil be
much easier for you to promote various aspects of the
product.

So when selecting the affiliate prgram keep in mind the
following sequence

a)Product which you know about or are interested in.
b)Qulaity of the product. To know the quality of the
product it is advisavle to buy the product yourself
first.
c)The organisation associated with the product. Look for
the promotional material they are giving to affiliates.
This shows the confidence of the manufacturer in their own
product.
d)Commission structure. Some webmasters provide 2 tier
commission structure. Some have a threshhold amout before
the affiliates get paid. Here is a nice place to sart with.
This is a list which contains 50 affiliate Programs That Pay
AT LEAST 50% commissions.

Step 2> Design a simple landing page to "presell" the product
before sending the visitors to actual sales page. Now this step
is extremely imporant. Why do you to presell the product ?. This
is because this is internet. No one knows you here or has seen
you personally.

Normally when someone buys from the internet he is going to look
for similar 4-5 products before he gets to the final decision.
Here if he comes to your affiliate landing page it becomes
much easier for him to compare the product you want to promote
with similar 4-5 products in the category.

The landing page you have designed can have testimonials, which
you can borrow from the sales page. It can also contain your
own experience about the product. You can use before/after
situations for describing the benefits of the product. You can use
photographs of yourself using the product successfully. This
adds instant credibility to the product you want to promote.

Step 3>When the visitors reach your landing page you must have
a system to capture their names and email addresses. Because
as I said earlier there are many people who look for similar
4-5 products before buying. By capturing email addresse you can
"follow up" your subscribers later on using newsletters or
product features using email autoresponders.

The best way to capture email addresses is to provide a
free gift related to the product. This free gift can be
an eBook written by you or many webmasters already have an
ebook written for the affiliates. SO again this is a very
importan tpoint, join only those programs where you will find
a decent promitional material already prepared for the
affiliates.