How To Select An Affiliate Program
Affiliate Marketing 101
From the Build a Website Dream Team

There are a few issues you need to address before deciding to partner with any Affiliate program. This information is vital to succeeding at affiliate marketing, so read it carefully!

Be Selective

Choose a merchant that compliments your website's content. For example, if your website is about filing divorce papers in California, you are wasting bandwidth by placing affiliate links or banners related to web hosting, or acquiring an online education. You should feature an affiliate program that is related to getting a divorce in California, (i.e., online divorce papers, divorce kits, etc.) You will increase your affiliate much better with affiliate links that blend with your site's content.

Don’t Over Do It

Some people just go affiliate crazy. They post so many affiliate links, banners and buttons from various affiliates on their website, that their website looks like an advertising billboard in downtown New York. This rookie tactic will only serve to drive customers away.

How Low Can You Go?

Some affiliate programs pay such a low percentage that partnering with them is just not worth it. In essence, they have website owners referring them leads and sales for peanuts. If that’s their attitude, let them generate their own leads!

When Affiliates Don’t Pay They Cannot Stay!

The purpose of affiliate marketing is to generate additional revenue from your website. If you efforts are not being rewarded, remove that affiliate from your website. Seek merchants with affiliate programs who know how to make sales and pay their affiliates.

When The Fish Are Not Biting Switch Lakes

When your affiliate links, banners or buttons are getting the traffic, but not generating sales, it’s serious time to considering replacing them with an income generating affiliate program. If your sales ratio is something ridiculous like 500:1 or even worse 1,000:1; meaning it takes five hundred or a thousand visitors to generate one sale, that program needs to be DROPPED! I have some affiliate programs that range in the 100:20 range and even better. When program is not converting sales, I let them go.

Avoid Affiliates With a High Refund/Return/Cancellation Rate

Some affiliate programs are notorious for refunds, returns and cancellations. You receive a, “You just made a sale,” notice in your in box on Monday and by Wednesday, they’ve cancelled. Usually this is due to bad product/service or over hyped promises the affiliate cannot keep.

I’ve Got My Eyes On You; Affiliate Tracking

A good affiliate provides a means for you to track hits, sales and conversion rates; bad affiliates don’t. It’s that simple! If an affiliate program doesn’t provide a control panel for you to login and check your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly statistics, don’t partner with them. Also note: they should provide more than one method for tracking these stats such as:

• Cookie Tracking
• Simple Direct URL Links
• Sub Domain Tracking
• Self Replicated Pages
• URL Query String Tracking
• Database Record Match Tracking

Avoid These Types of Affiliate Programs Like the Plague

There are some affiliate programs that you MUST avoid like the plague. I promise you, if you partner with an affiliate program that has any one or more of these attributes, you will most likely be loosing money and wasting time.

1. They encourage potential customers to call in
2. They have a 800 number displayed on their website, (You won’t get paid on these sales)
3. They only track referrals for 45 days or less, (60 to 90 days or more is better)
4. They don’t provide pre-designed banners, text links and buttons for marketing
5. They don’t provide affiliate help
6. They don’t provide linking instructions
7. They don’t provide a pay schedule
8. They hold your commissions for 60 days or more
9. They are hard to get a hold of
10. They have a bad/terrible reputation for not paying affiliates
11. They have a high refund/return rate
12. They have a low conversion rate
13. They require an upfront fee for affiliate marketers

First I Read, Then We Dance… Maybe!

It is imperative that you READ the terms and conditions of the affiliate agreement. You'd be astonished at how some merchants plot to delay paying affiliates or avoid paying them altogether. Don’t assume that just because they are a " brand name " merchant that they will pay you and pay you on time; read the agreement and if you start seeing language that makes you believe you’ve got to jump through hoops to receive your hard earned affiliate commissions, then don’t partner with them.

This tutorial is brought to you by Joe Elliot of Conscience Collaborations. Your Build a Website and Internet Marketing Dream Team Partner! We Help you make money online with hot tutorials, articles and insightful information. To receive more tips from Joe and the rest of the Conscience Collaborators, go to www.YouBuildWebsites.com