Dear New Affiliate, Be Picky When Choosing Affiliate Programs

Question: How do you choose an affiliate program to promote? There are so many out there. Which ones are good?

Dear New Affiliate,

There are several ways to determine whether an affiliate program is worthy. Oftentimes it looks like the Affiliate Manager has all the power, but this is a partnership. There really are thousands of programs available. Don’t sign up and promote just any of them. If you aren’t completely thrilled about the program, look 5 more minutes and you’ll find something better.

Here are some questions to ask yourself whenever you find an affiliate program you’re interested in.

Are the products something you believe in?
The products better be good. If you’re not 100% sold on the products to the point that you’d tell your best friend to buy them – then you’ve got no business signing up for that affiliate program. Keep looking for something better.

Is their website professional?

Your reputation is on the line every time you promote a product or service. If you’re sending your traffic to a website that is on free hosting or just looks unprofessional, then you’re going to lose the confidence of your subscribers. Now, many sales letters aren’t ‘pretty’ but they are grammatically correct, and everything is functional, with pictures and testimonials.

So, although the website doesn’t have to be beautiful, it does need to look ‘live’.

Is their website easy to navigate?

If shoppers can’t figure out how to purchase, then there’s no point in sending your traffic there.

What are the numbers?

If you have two programs you like equally well, you can choose between them or write reviews for each and compare and contrast their benefits. Or, if that doesn’t fit into your site, then test both to see which gives you the best results.

Free trial?

Any product that offers samples or service that offers a free trial deserves a look. If you can offer your website visitors a sample of any sort to get them hooked, you’ll have much higher results than trying to convince them that the product is good.

Are there any tools to help you?

The best affiliate programs go above and beyond in their tools and resources section. Not only do they provide the standard text links and buttons and banners, but you also have solo mailings, articles, and even product feeds. These are the affiliate programs that ‘get it’.

Once you find an affiliate program that you love, it’s still smart to continue to test the results.

Just because you think it’s great doesn’t mean you visitors will. Continually look at the statistics to see how much traffic you’re sending and if any of it is converting. If you’re not getting results and you’re sending a lot of traffic, then you might want to look at a new program.