If you’re excited about affiliate marketing, and you should be, make sure you take the time to properly research any company you are thinking of doing business with as an affiliate. While there are hundreds and hundreds of affiliate programs from which to choose, it will be wise to be selective so that you are getting the best possible revenue from all of your hard work.
Read Everything
Make sure you read all of the policies and Terms of Service for each affiliate program you are applying to represent. Usually, you will have to fill out an application and wait a couple of days for it to be approved, especially if you are submitting a website that you will place affiliate links on. When you access the application, you will have an opportunity to read all of the requirements. This can be a pain, but do read these terms and conditions for two reasons: (1) You want to make sure the Terms of Service are satisfactory to you; that is, do you want to represent this company and promote their products? (2) You want to make sure you comply with all the requirements and avoid doing anything that would get your site banned from the program. After all, if you don’t know what the rules are, how can you be sure you are following them?
Stick with Well Known Companies at First
If you’re new to affiliate marketing, you might want to stick to well known companies until you learn the ropes. Unfortunately, although the Internet is full of money making opportunities, it also has its share of scams. Fortunately, there are so many well known companies that participate in affiliate marketing that you couldn’t represent them all if you tried so you will still have a large menu to choose from.
Be Aware of How and When They Pay
When you read the Terms of Service, you’ll read about how often you will get paid, the rate of commission at which you’ll be paid, and which method you will be paid with. Many affiliate programs pay through PayPal; others send out checks. Also, be aware that many of these programs have a threshold that you must reach in order to be paid. For example, you may have to earn $100 in commissions before you are paid at all. While many affiliate programs have a minimum you must earn before you will be paid, some of them are as low as $10 or $25.
Do They Offer a Money Back Guarantee to Their (and Your) Customers?
Customers like to shop with companies that offer a money back guarantee. It makes them feel more secure and you will likely do better if you promote products from companies that offer such a guarantee. Also, notice what kind of customer service the company offers. After all, if they don’t take care of their customers, they won’t have many customers to take care of. That means you won’t have many customers either.
Do your homework, read the Terms of Service, and if all else fails, you can always move on to another affiliate program. You may try several in the beginning until you find the ones that suit you the best.
Niche marketing is one way that affiliate marketers use to promote their products. A niche is simply an area of expertise or interest such as dogs or health and fitness. Of course, those categories are quite broad and the savvy Internet marketer will drill down into those subjects to come up with a more specialized area. For example, taking the subject of dogs, you could then come up with a variety of subjects related to dogs upon which you could base your niche. It could be dog training, specialized doggy diets, canine health, or a variety of other subjects related to dogs.
Consider Your Interests and Hobbies
What are you interested in that others might be interested in too? This is a great place to start when trying to come up with a niche in which to begin your affiliate marketing career. After all, if you know something about a subject, it will be easier to talk about it and if you’re excited about something, that excitement will show through in your content. Conversely, if you choose a niche just because it is popular but you have no real interest in it then you run the risk of your ambivalence showing through as well.
What would You Like to do or Know?
Have you always wanted to know more about hang gliding, skiing, or ventriloquism? Even if you don’t yet know very much about your affiliate marketing niche, if you have the interest in learning more, you could still become somewhat of an expert and develop content that would interest others. Once you develop your website with interesting content, you will want to scour the Internet for appropriate products to promote.
Keywords, Keywords, Keywords!
Many affiliate marketers rely on keywords to tell them which niche they will market in. They do keyword searches to find out what people are searching for and interested in, and therefore, more likely to spend money on. Keywords are important but it must be stressed again not to rely solely on keywords. Another important consideration is how many sites are already up and running for those keyword searches. Although you will have competition regardless of which niche you choose to market in, you don’t want to get started in a niche that is already over saturated.
To be successful in affiliate marketing, you will likely experience some trial and error. It is important to do your research and it is also important to remain flexible. A good rule of thumb might be to choose niches in which there are significant keyword searches and for which you also hold some interest.
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