Top 7 Things to Consider When Looking at Affiliate ...

??????Affiliate programs are popping up everywhere, selling everything from information to Viagra. Many site owners are seeing dollar signs where they should be seeing traps. Greed and dishonesty are powerful aphrodisiacs. Keep your wits about you when examining these programs. They may be free to join, in most cases, but they are still business relationships that can negatively impact your online business and your reputation. Here is a list of things to seriously consider before you sign up for one.

1. Determine the suitability of the product to your site and your visitors. Don't just look at the level of interest (luggage at a travel site) but also consider issues such as price, value, quality, guarantee, merchant reputation, etc. A poor buying experience could cause you to lose a regular visitor/customer.
2. You MUST analyze the affiliate agreement. No matter what the promotional materials say, the written contract rules the relationship. If the contract is not consistent with the promo materials, the merchant is either sloppy or dishonest. Watch for red flags like this, they are common.
3. You must analyze the tracking system. What methods are used to track the customers you refer and for how long are they tracked for the purposes of earning you a commission?
4. You must understand the commission structure. Don't get sucked into language such as "up to X%." Find out what percentage will likely apply to the sales you reasonably believe you can generate, then determine if that commission is acceptable to you.
5. You should believe that the merchant's site is designed to sell product. If they can't sell to their visitors, you will never earn a return on your efforts.
6. Decide whether you can afford to send your visitor away from your site in exchange for the possible commission you may earn if a sale is completed. If it is costing you $5 to attract a visitor you can't afford to send one away to maybe earn a $3 referral fee.
7. Make sure the merchant has a reasonable and visible privacy policy. If they don't, they will scare away a lot of potential customers.

If after looking at all of the above issues the program still looks good, give it a try. No one ever knows for sure which programs will succeed on a given site, so test different programs and different methods of promoting them on your site until you find what works best for you and your visitors. Good luck.

Source: http://naijatell.blogspot.com/2011/09/top-7-things-to-consider-when-looking.html

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