Choosing the Right Affiliate Program
By Y. Ailan of
DollarSpiders.com
Monday, November 15, 2004; 1:30pm EST
The importance of choosing the appropriate program(s) for your
website has been in my opinion one of the most overlooked aspect
when taking into consideration which program(s) to join. In response
to this phenomenon that seem's to plague most webmasters these days,
I have decided to compile this article on how to choose the right
affiliate program(s) for your website.
I am writing this article because I had to find out the difficult
way how to choose a program(s). From my experiences, here are
several of the top factors you should take into consideration while
deciding which program(s):
Sustainability and Stability
As the saying goes: "you can skin a sheep many times, but once you
kill it its dead" (Or something like that). Your probably thinking,
is this guy insane? (I am still trying to figure that out), but that
saying is relevant to this section because it tells you that once a
program discontinues its side of the bargain, its in the gutter.
What I'm getting at is that you need to find stability in the
program your joining because if you join a program that was made
recently , how do you know they have the proper amount of clients or
money to pay all the participants what they deserve. A rule for
those who haven't figured it out yet and those who have forgotten:
If it has been around for a while then it has credibility,a
reputation to live up, chances are they have enough money saved away
to pay when their business is in a bad position and they have
developed their program.
Now that you have decided that the program you want is financially
stable we can move on to the next part.
On Time
Do they pay you in a reasonable timeframe? is a question we should
all ask before joining any programs because eventually you will
start to wonder why you haven't seen a paycheck, even after you have
sent them hundreds or thousands of referrals. Only to find out that
your paycheck will come in six months. (I might be exaggerating just
a little but it's because I'm trying to prove a point).
Time is important, it is intangible and is priceless, so don't waste
your time on programs who wont put in the time to take the time to
send you a cheque on time. (I spent allot of time on this one)
Target Audience
Maybe I am crazy, but when your surfing a website about lets say
cheat codes for the latest console or PC games, there is no way in
hell your going to buy a 22.5ft garden hose, especially if it
doesn't come with one of those lawn sprinkler things. If anything
you will frown upon the site and the company that makes it for being
so uncreative in trying to win your dollar. First of all if your a
company that makes 22.5ft garden hoses then you should be
advertising on gardening website's, and if your a webmaster with a
website dedicated to gaming, you should base your advertisements
around games. Maybe, just maybe I'm crazy but I honestly believe
that you will make almost nothing if your advertising the wrong
product on the wrong site. (unless little angus's grandmother is
screaming in his ear to buy a 22.5ft garden hose for her while he is
surfing a cheat code website)
The message in this section is to advertise something your target
audience will be interested in, or else guaranteed you will not be
successful with that program or not as successful as you would with
something your surfers would be interested in.
A helping hand
A good way to tell if a program is reliable is to pretend your
"clue-less" about the program and find out as much as you can, if
all your questions are answered in the FAQ and Support areas of the
website, then it should be a good program, but if they don't take
the time to help you and you have unanswered questions, what does
that say about the program? Another excellent indicator is if they
reply to your emails, if they actually help you then that means that
they do care about the people who are participating in their
program(s), which makes them reliable. So when you do have a
question that cant wait or is really important they will actually
help you.
Thank you very much for your time, I hope you enjoyed reading this
article as much as possible.
About the Author
Article Written by Y. Ailan. More information on programs at http://www.dollarspiders.com
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