Author: Radiance Johnson
Everyday we are bombarded with all kinds of affiliate
programmes promising heaven and earth and claiming to be your
ultimate recipe for financial success. There are several
ingenious marketers who are daily releasing programmes that
appear to be the answer you need to embark on your journey to
financial freedom. Often times, you are rudely shocked to
realize that the programme you have joined is far from what you
had expected and that your financial investments have gone down
the drain.
Hence the need to ask questions. Let me repeat that it is
absolutely necessary for you to ASK a ton of questions before
you join any affiliate programme as it will save you avoidable
heartache later. Take time to conduct some modest research about
the features of the affiliate programme you are considering as
you are going to be devoting time and financial resources on it.
Some of these questions shall include whether it will cost you
anything to join. However, it is given that this will be free as
most lucrative affiliate programmes that abound today cost you
nothing to join. Therefore do not consider any programme that
requires you to make some payment prior to joining.
Next point to consider will be the hit- per- sale ratio. In
other words how many hits to a banner or text link will you have
to record to record a sale? This is important because it will
assist you to work out the traffic level that is required to
generate a given desired number of sales. And of course it has a
direct bearing on the amount of commissions that you qualify to
be paid by the merchant.
Similarly, you will do well to find out when your earned
commission checks will be ready for collection and how often you
will be paid in a month. How many sales will you have to record
to be entitled for a commission check? What is the minimum
amount required for the commission check to be issued? Anyway,
you have to choose the option that you feel is the most suitable
to you.
The next question for which you must find an answer before you
decide on any affiliate programme is the accuracy of the
tracking system. How are referrals from an affiliate's site
tracked? Will the tracking system remain long enough such that
when ever a prospect that you refer decides to purchase several
weeks later you will still be credited with that sale? You must
therefore find a programme that has a good tracking system that
has this capacity.
Another important parameter that you should also consider is
the group of affiliate statistics that are available to you from
the merchant processing system. Such statistics should be
detailed covering all relevant indices and available online real
time 24/7. This will assist you in determining and monitoring
your progress or lack thereof. Naturally, you will be very much
interested in the average daily hits, impressions, sales and the
like as these data are important in deciding whether you should
modify your ads, banners etc.
You can also, depending on the nature of the affiliate
programme, find out whether you can also be paid for hits and
impressions in addition to the sales recorded. This is
particularly important where the programme you are associated
with offers low sales – to- hit ratio.
A very important consideration in choosing your affiliate
programme is the percentage of commission that is paid out to
the affiliates per sale. Considering the fact that it costs
virtually the same effort and financial resources to promote
your affiliate programmes you must insist on reasonably adequate
commission payments. 50% appears to be the dominant practice
these days but anything higher will be appreciated.
Similarly, is the affiliate programme a one-tier or two-tier
programme? A one-tier affiliate programme pays you only for the
sale that you personally generate while the two-tier programme
pays you for the business generated by your sponsored affiliate.
Infact, some programmes even pay what could be termed
recruitment fees in order to inspire affiliates to exert
themselves in getting more sign-ups.
It is equally important to try and know your merchant better.
Determine if they are a solid company and their basic line of
business and their products. Your research should also assist
you to determine their relative standing in that particular
niche and how easy it would be for you to successfully market
their product and make some money in the process.
All said, these are only some of the basic questions you must
find answers to before you jump into any particular affiliate
programme. They are by no means exhaustive but are only supposed
to provide with the basic guidance you need before making your
choice out of the cacophony of claims and promises that abound
on the internet. Whatever the case, however, you must be ready
to work your business to success like many have been able to
achieve and are financially happier for it.
About The Author: Radiance Johnson is a savvy internet
marketer who writes on several subjects. If you are interested
in some of the most profitable affiliate programmes online,
Radiance recommends that you visit –
http://www.FastWeal thOnline. com for more information
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