Step-by-Step Guide on How to Choose an Affiliate Program

There’s no denying that affiliate marketing has become the primary source of income for many content creators. Before you rush into the marketing activities that will undoubtedly dominate your time, it’s critical that you select a good market in which to exercise your skills. Even the best marketing efforts will go to waste if the program isn’t attractive to visitors, or doesn’t provide a good commission.

So whether you use affiliate marketing as an extra income stream, or as a main source of site revenue, finding the best programs to promote is of utmost importance.

In this article, we’ll give you a step-by-step guide on how you can choose a good affiliate program.

1. Find products to promote that are related to your web content
2. Find products that have good market acceptance
3. Commission Payout Structure
4. Residual Income Earnings
5. Product promotion permissions
6. Support and promotional materials
7. Program Payout Methods
8. Vendor support

1. Find products to promote that are related to your web content

In order to achieve a good converting affiliate, it is important that your readers relate the product with the theme of your site. For example, if your website is about fitness and lifestyle, it will not make much sense to promote an affiliate program about mobile phones and accessories. You can also be creative and expand your reach. If your website is about

health and fitness, there’s no need to limit yourself to just selling health and fitness products. You can also promote beauty products, nutrition supplements…anything that is related.

2. Find products that have good market acceptance

Not only do your affiliate products need to be related to your website theme, they must also be well-received by the public. Do a quick search online and look for people’s conversations about this product. Check products reviews online and look for red flags. The best thing to get a firsthand experience is to sign-up for a free trial and use the product yourself, wherever possible.

A product will always give you a better chance of sales if it is well-accepted and trusted.

3. Commission Payout Structure

Now that you have a good idea of the type of products you wish to promote, it is now time to search for programs that will give you a good return. The aspect to consider carefully here is how much commission you can earn. It is easy to assume that higher commission levels automatically mean attractive opportunities; however it’s important to look at the bigger scenario. Products with low sales may have higher commissions, but a high selling product may come with a lower commission rate.

Commission percentages however can range from the low single digits to more than 50%. (E-products generally have the highest commissions since the margins are close to 100 %.)

For example,

Program A: Pays 20% affiliate commission on a $25 product sale.

Program B: Pays 50%- 100% affiliate commission on a $100 product sale.

Promoting Program A might seem easy because of the cost of the product. But here’s the catch – if you can sell a $25 product, then you can as well sell a $100, $500 and even a $1000 product. It’s all about marketing the right way and using different tactics and strategies.

So if you want to earn more and hit 6~figures soon, you need to go for Program B.

4. Residual Income Earnings

Residual income gives you the chance to get paid over and over for making one sale. Residual affiliate programs may pay at a lower rate, but merchants offering such programs will generally pay you regular and ongoing commissions for a single affiliate initiated sale. That means, for the effort you put into promoting a particular affiliate program, you get paid only once in a one-time commission program, and a regular and ongoing commission for a residual program!

To demonstrate this with an example,

Suppose there are two merchants both offering web hosting services on their sites. The first one offers a one-time commission structure that pays $80 for every single affiliate initiated sale. The second one also offers an affiliate program, but a residual structure that pays only $10 for every single affiliate initiated sale.

As an affiliate, you may get attracted to what the first merchant is offering. But upon a closer look, you will be able to see that the second merchant is offering an opportunity to earn a greater amount of money. How? Let’s analyse.

Say you have directed traffic to the first merchant and it converted into a sale, you’ll get paid $80 once for the sale you have initiated. But with the second merchant, you’ll get paid monthly for as long as the customer you have converted continues to avail of the web hosting service. That means that for the same customer, you get paid monthly!

5. Product promotion permissions

After analysing the commission structure and checking whether you can earn residual income, you must check whether the affiliate programs have special conditions in place for promoting a product.

For example, certain affiliate programs will not allow you to create campaigns on Instagram for selling a product. Therefore, affiliates who run large Instagram pages will not be interested in joining a program with such restrictions.

6. Support and promotional materials

An important factor to consider before choosing an affiliate program is the promotional materials you get to promote the product. The most common materials that programs offer are banners and text ads but many programs also offer support materials like recommendations, newsletters and optimized publications. Not all affiliate programs have these tools to provide that extra support, so make sure you analyse carefully which affiliate programs offer what kind of support.

7. Program Payout Methods

When the time comes to pick a payment method and get that well-deserved cash, how to know which payment method you can rely on? Most affiliate programs have payment methods that include PayPal, prepaid debit cards, gift cards, checks, or direct deposit electronic ACH bank transfers.

Before deciding upon a payment method, please make sure to keep the following points in mind:

• Average time it takes to receive a payment
• Commission fees to receive funds and withdraw money
• How fast, clear and easy the verification process is
• How accessible the payment system is in other affiliate and ad networks

8. Vendor support

Working with a vendor that provides good support makes all the difference between a good or poor experience. Problems are bound to occur along the way, and knowing you have support from the vendor when needed gives peace of mind.

Support can be offered in different ways depending upon the size of the vendor, whether it be from a dedicated account manager to live chat or email support.

Conclusion

Choosing the correct affiliate program can be intimidating given how populated the market is. Following the steps we outlined will make it that much easier for you to decide which program serves your interest the best and help avoid headaches down the road after you’ve already invested your time and efforts.

Did our guide help you in your decision to choose a program? Tell us about your experience and help other aspiring affiliate marketers along the way!