Building An Affiliate Income Picking Profitable Affiliate Programs

By Kevin Bidwell
Posted Sunday, February 15, 2004

[This article is one of several on building an affiliate income. You can view the other articles by going to: all-in-one-business.com/imm/20030808 ] It's a great feeling to open your mail and see a check there for $ 500 or more. It's an even greater feeling to get two or three!
While there are hordes of affiliates out there who never make a sale or get a check, there are a few of us who get checks every month, all year long. No matter what kind of site you have, you want to be one of those people.

There are several steps to building an effective affiliate income:

1. Identify a workable market niche.
2. Locate solid affiliate programs to offer that niche.
3. Build a site and newsletter with high-quality information tied to that niche.
4. Get your targeted visitors to the site and signed up for your newsletter.
5. Send your visitors with open and receptive minds to the affiliate sites you represent, ready to buy.

In this article I will look at the second step: Locating affiliate programs that will make you the long-term money you want and need.

There are a number of places you can look for affiliate programs. Here are a few I use:

Our Own Search Engine of Affiliate Programs

- all-in-one-business.com/programs

Our New Programs Mailer (this focuses on new two-tier affiliate programs):

- all-in-one-business.com/newpro

Allan Gardyne's Associate Program Directory

- AssociatePrograms.com

Here is how you can identify a program that will make you a good income over the coming months and years:

1. MAKE SURE IT IS TARGETED TO YOUR NICHE
If your niche is radio controlled car racing enthusiasts, you don't want to offer them internet marketing courses. Instead, you will want to offer them products related to RC racing.

2. DETERMINE IF THE COMMISSION IS SUFFICIENT
Sending an email to your list doesn't cost you anything, right?

WRONG! Here's why...

Every time you send out an email about one product, you are giving up the opportunity to send out a recommendation on some other product. This is called opportunity cost.

I do a product recommendation to my list about once per month. I know that the average return per subscriber for each of those mailers is around 10 to 20 cents per subscriber.

If I choose to recommend a product to my list and the commission is too low, I may make only 2 cents per subscriber.

So, that mailer "cost" me 8 cents per subscriber. That is a HUGE amount of wasted opportunity.

The commission offered on your product needs to be enough to justify your cost in advertising the product. 40-50% of a digital product and 30-40% for a "hard good" is probably reasonable. If someone is trying to give you less than this you most likely need to walk away.

Of course, re-curing commissions have a few other variables to consider.

3. MAKE SURE THE PAGE HAS A SOLID SALES PROCESS
Before you recommend a product--even if you truly believe in the product--make sure you take a close look at the sales process. Is the sales page readable? Compelling? If not, don't send people to the page--they aren't going to buy.

4. CHECK OUT THE PRODUCT YOURSELF
DON'T RECOMMEND A PRODUCT YOU HAVEN'T AT LEAST *EXAMINED* YOURSELF! Recommending products you have not looked at is like Russian roulette--you might get by with it for a couple spins, but eventually it will shoot you in the head.

A well-known marketer recommended an ebook he had not read himself. He had read the first version, but not volume 2. Later, when it became obvious the product was pretty much a waste of money, the "guru's" recommendation--sent to his list--now appeared as a testimonial at the sales site.

It hurt this guru's credibility and his own ability to make sales.

5. MAKE SURE SOLID TRACKING IS IN PLACE
You should be able to see how many visitors you have sent to the affiliate site, how many purchased and how much sales commission you have earned. This is a bare minimum.

Following these five recommendations will go a long way toward getting you nice commission checks week after week.

About The Author
Kevin Bidwell is owner of All-in-one-Business.com. Kevin just finished a complete report on building a passive income. Grab your copy here: All-In-One-Business.com/passive