Affiliate Programs -
My Conclusions
If you haven't yet read the previous articles on affiliate marketing programs, please do so first (start here) to see how I arrived at these conclusions.
A LOT of Merchants
... is NOT the answer! Many affiliates put a large number of merchants on their site, to maximise their chances of getting good affiliate returns. The only thing they get is headaches from the work involved. Careful selection of relevant, performing merchants is the key!
Having said that however, I'm about to test the Monster Mall concept where Commission Monster dynamically sets up merchants, products and specials, and keeps everything up to date for me! I'll let you know how it works through another article shortly...
A LOT of Traffic
One thing that is needed to get ANY sort of result, is traffic... and lots of it! If your web site is not getting at least 10,000 unique visitors a month, then the stats (click-through rates) are against you.
A LOT of Work
The administration of various affiliate marketing programs - seeking out merchants, putting linking code on your site, keeping up with your stats, replacing non-performing merchants, etc - is a LOT of work. For many, rewards commensurate with the hours of effort are just NOT there.
To Summarise
I'm now targetting
- those affiliate programs which reward me immediately when I send traffic away from my site... i.e. the pay-per-click programs (especially Adsense... discussed next), and
- a limited number of carefully selected commission based programs - which are tracked closely and replaced if they do not perform (give them at least 1 month)
A good research tool is "The Affiliate Masters Course", which is a free downloadable e-book (pdf) on becoming an affiliate.
Also... You Absolutely MUST Try Adsense
In July 2003 Google, introduced a dramatic new contextual advertising service called Adsense, which was proclaimed by some as spelling the "death for affiliate programs". While they may not be dead, Google has given them good reason to shape up...
 NEXT - Google's Adsense Affiliate Program
What's involved, and will it work for you? More...
PREVIOUS - Are they worth it?
What income is most likely with the majority of affiliate programs? More...
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