With literally thousands of affiliate programs available on the Internet, it could be difficult to determine which ones are high quality. Separate the wheat from the chaff by applying some basic criteria to your selection process:
- the amount of revenue share
- ease of implementation
- e-mail response time
- online reporting capabilities
- customer service
- clarity of the terms and conditions
- availability of free content
It may take some detective work to make sure the company is legitimate and maintains a well-defined affiliate program, so always read your Affiliate Terms and Conditions agreement before signing up for any merchant program.
The best place to find quality rated affiliate programs is to check the
Refer-it.com three- and four-star rated programs.
Refer-it also publishes a monthly Top Ten list of the most popular programs rated by clickthrough.
Top notch programs offer full features, such as:
- online reporting
- an opt-in affiliate newsletter
- co-branded pages
- customizable content
- two tier structure
- superior customer service
- an easily navigated user interface
- a privacy policy
- use of third party tracking software
- the opportunity to make a substantial amount of revenue
Many affiliate programs pay commissions on a monthly basis while others may include 'trailing' commissions for a finite period of time (e.g. residual income for 15 days or more).
Red Flags
Be extremely wary of sites where no top-level domain name is registered (such as homepage building URL's), illegal goods are being sold, fraudulent activities are being conducted, and commission structure and response to e-mail is poor. Although a good percentage of adult, MLM, and gambling sites are legitimate and will pay, be cautious.
For more information
about affiliate programs, check out these other articles:
Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing
Revenue Sharing
101
In this first in a series of weekly articles, we present a no-nonsense approach to generating revenue from your Web site.
How to Indentify Quality
Affiliate Programs
With literally thousands of affiliate programs available on the Internet, it could be difficult to determine which ones
are high quality. However, the process could be made easier when using some basic criteria.
Understanding Affiliate
Commission Structures
If you want to get paid, you need to understand affiliate commission payments and the many different commission
structures that exist.
Content
Sells
Making money with affiliate programs requires much hard work and continued attention to developing and retaining visitor
traffic.
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Test, Test, Test!
The best vehicle to ascertain how smoothly a merchant affiliate program runs is to shop through your affiliate links. You would be surprised at how many merchants allow and encourage you to do this. Does your affiliate link accomplish what you expect it to? If you are shopping for a Madeline Doll, does the Zany Brainy Link take you to a Madeline Page or just a generic doll page? To maximize sales, eliminate unnecessary steps from the shopping experience. Evaluate the shopping experience and provide tips to visitors that will guide them through the buying process.
Does your test sale appear on your affiliate sales report? Be aware that a link clicked today may not earn you a commission tomorrow. Each merchant has set specific cookie time periods and many times you will lose affiliate revenue if your visitor gets distracted and returns to your affiliate site at a later date or time.
Reports in check?
Check your reports, statistics and logs. Most third party solution providers have an easy reporting interface so that you can check sales, commissions and clickthroughs on a daily basis. Keep on top of these reports. If you are sending hundreds of visitors to a merchant site that is not appearing on your report, send the merchant a quick e-mail. Oftentimes, an e-mail at the beginning of your affiliate relationship can help identify bugs and coding errors that would otherwise result in lost sales. If your e-mail goes unanswered, immediately remove the merchant banners from your site until the matter is resolved.
Stay in Tune
Be sure to keep a pulse on what's happening in the affiliate world. Read your e-mail and occasionally click on your affiliate links to make sure the merchant site is still in business. We've seen some big players (eToys, Pets.com) close down over the last several months. Unfortunately, many of these companies may not have the funds needed to pay hard-earned affiliate commissions. Frequently, goodbye e-mails are overlooked and traffic is lost every hour of every day the now defunct merchant banners are not removed from your site.
Refer-it sends out a monthly newsletter with program closings and also maintains a list of discontinued programs..
Get the facts, Jack
Before you send a nasty e-mail you will later regret, be sure to read and understand the payment terms and schedule. There is no standard frequency or payment amount. Merchants can issue checks monthly, quarterly or whenever the commission reaches a specific amount. The most common payment structure is a quarterly payment after a $50 or $100 threshold is met. Smarter merchants issue monthly checks. These merchants typically get better placement on an affiliate site and small monthly checks tend to grow into large ones.
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