Affiliate programs are a dime-a-dozen in the web. Try doing a simple search engine query with affiliate programs as the search phrase and you’re sure to come up with millions of search results.
The abundance of affiliate programs means that you have lots of options when it comes to earning affiliate commissions.
However, this is also its main drawback. Specifically, how do you choose the best affiliate programs among the lot?
Relevance and Target Market
Affiliates earn money mainly through revenue sharing. That is, you send your own sites visitors to your advertisers’ website.
Once these referrals buy your advertisers products, you get a percentage share of the advertiser’s revenues from these sales. You earn money the way a sales representative off the internet earns his income through sales commissions.
This means that before you send your visitors off to your advertisers’ website, you have to pre-sell them to the products or services that your advertisers offer.
This way, there’s a higher chance of conversion (i.e. sales) and, thus, a higher chance that you will get some sales commission.
What does this imply?
You the best affiliate programs for you are those that are relevant to your sites content and that you visitors.
If your site is about finance, for example, then you should sign up for an affiliate program that promotes financial products, services and solutions.
Moreover, the best affiliate programs for you should be those that promote products and services that your site visitors will be interested in.
By satisfying both conditions, your site visitors who are interested in finance (this is their sole reason for visiting your site), will be more inclined to click on your advertisers finance-related ads and complete a purchase.
Salability of the Products or Services and Quality of Advertisers Sales Website
The best affiliate programs are also those that promote worthy products and services. It wouldn’t matter how much effort you put into marketing your advertisers products and services if such products and services do not have merit.
Your site visitors will simply visit your advertiser’s website and move on; this will be such a waste of your pre-selling effort.
The quality of the advertiser’s sales website should also be considered in your search for the best affiliate programs.
No matter how effective your pre-selling is, if your advertiser’s sales website fails to appeal to your referrals, they’re unlikely to stay around and buy anything.
A poorly designed website very difficult to navigate, with poorly written copy and poor functionality can discourage even the most interested buyer.
