Affiliate marketing - How
super affiliates choose their top affiliate program
© 2003 by Detlev Reimer
You will certainly have heard about success stories
from affiliates who are making their living just by selling products
which they haven't even created themselves... How did they know
which affiliate program to promote?
Going after the money or your interests?
When you're promoting affiliate programs, you have
two choices: Either you can decide to promote popular items which
are very likely to be sold as there is a huge level of interest
(a lot ofcompetition also) e.g. dating sites, casino sites, weight
loss products or you can promote something you really like, something
that is related to your hobbies and interests.
The best thing is to combine the best of both worlds
by promoting a product which is in demand but which interests
you as well. For example products related to golfing are very
popular and there are a lot of keywords related to that area.
And if you are a golfer yourself, you will have no problems finding
topics to write about on your site. You could write about how
to improve your golf swing or where to find the best golf equipment
or you simply explain golfing rules. That's up to you.
Whatever you decide, make sure you do your keyword
research. The best tool I know of to find related keywords to
your main keyword is an online tool called WordTracker.
With this tool, you'll find dozens if not hundreds of related
words and phrases together with an analysis for the
profitabililty in the search engines. It even shows
you how often people have searched for these combinations. I'm
using the suggestions from WordTracker
myself now to create highly targeted and optimized affiliate sites!
What are the most important facts before promoting ANY affiliate
program ?
1.) There must be a DEMAND for the product the
merchant is offering. You can check this by visiting Overture.com
and see if any sellers are bidding on keywords related to the
product you want to offer.
2.) The commission must be substantial in itself
. If you're promoting a $5 item then you need to make a LOT of
sales and it can be as difficult as selling a high ticket item.
Make sure it's worth it. Commissions of 50% would be desirable
(mainly digital goods) but for high ticket items even just 20-45%
will do it. Personally, I would not promote anything that offers
me a commission lower than $15 per sale.
3.) You should be able to reach someone at the company
if you have any questions related to the product. After all, if
you don't know enough details, how are you going to sell these
items to your customers ?
4.) The sales letter must be convincing enough to
get people to buy the product. Put yourself in your customers'
shoes and ask yourself: Would I buy the product myself when I
was visiting this page ? Moreover, the sales letter has got to
have enough testimonials included. This will boost your conversion
ratio.
5.) There should be a money-back guarantee for the
product being sold. If the affiliate program owner doesn't offer
this, then you better search for something different to promote...!
6.) Physical address and contact info should be
visible on the site.
7.) The affiliate program must offer realtime statistics
so you can see how many visits you are converting into sales.
If you are using an affiliate network like ClickBank or Commission
Junction, be sure to use tracking links for your ads to be able
to check the number of visitors.
Where to find those profitable affiliate programs?
There are several dozens of affiliate program directories
and these places are the first choice for affiliate marketers
to look at when searching for new products to promote. Typically,
the most known directories will be searched first, like Alan Gardyne's
AssociatePrograms.com or Chuck McCullough's AffiliateMatch.com
. Another way to find the most profitable affiliate programs is
by searching in regular affiliate networks like the before mentioned
ClickBank (for digital goods) and Commission Junction (mainly
physical goods).
Conclusion:
Most super affiliates will look in the affiliate
program directories to find their top performing affiliate program.
If the product owner offers a fair share of the profits (for physical
goods around 5-20% and for digital goods about 35-75%), the super
affiliate will choose the one which offers him the highest payout
when the points 1-7 of my list above are okay with the merchant.
So as an affiliate program owner, you better make sure that you
are listed there...
About the author: Detlev Reimer is the
editor of Web Money Marketing Videos, a new multimedia ezine which
shows you how to make a living online. Learn how to use certain
programs like ARELIS, Keyword-Site-Builder or AdWord Analyzer. Get
to know Internet marketing basics and advanced techniques. Subscribe
to the free version of the ezine by sending a blank
email to: webmoney
@ dreimer.par32.com
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