Merchant Selection for Maximum Affiliate Benefit
Copyright 2006 Stephen Wright
Have your very own product to sell on the internet? Truth is,
not many people do. Thousands of Internet Marketers are making
millions selling the products of others. The most common term
used for this is Affiliate Marketing. Affiliate Marketing has
become so popular and profitable that it has become one of the
fastest growing area of revenue generation on the internet.
Benefits, revenues and payback for affiliates are also at an all
time high. It is typical to see ad pages extolling the expertise
of any given affiliate, with documented revenues for amounts
previously thought unheard of. And for the product owners, this
is a win-win situation which has led to overall increases in
sales for a multitude of internet marketing products. Paying a
portion of those revenues to "eager beaver" and industrious
marketers has become commonplace.
>From the alliliates perspective, there are literally millions of
products and potential companies to choose from. What then are
the ideas, tips, and insider views to be considered when making
the decisions in program and product selections? Below are a few
of these.
Cut To The Chase! Show Me The Money! What Is The Commission
Payout Amounts: As a starting place, forget about shyness. Cut
straight to the bottom line. It is critical that from the outset
you know how much you might reasonably expect from product
sales. Why waste your value time promoting products, spending
your hard earned advertising dollars on merchant products that
pay low returns and revenues. Higher commission products are
recommended, unless of course you have identified specific niche
markets where the sales volumes can off set lower payouts per
sale. In fact, some programs offer deeper revenues on high
volume sales, as opposed to higher commissions on lower quantity
sales.
Carefully Analyze the Traffic on the Merchant's Website: It is
relatively easy these days to get information about the amount
of traffic on any given website. If the website is highly
ranked, the merchant is getting a good volume of traffic. In all
likelihood, this merchant is already saturated with affiliates.
Alternatively, if it is ranked low it is perhaps not a good
product or it could be that opportunity you are looking for that
is ripe for serious revenues. Always research a merchant's
product if their website has a low traffic ranking. Whenever
possible, buy the product yourself. Personal experience with a
product is powerful in advertising and sales campaigns. This
sincerity comes out in the advertisement over and over.
Otherwise you could do a search to find out if there are any
adverse comments about the products available. If it is a bad
product, you can bet someone has written about it!
Understand the Frequency of Distribution of Commission Checks:
Some merchants pay commissions weekly; some monthly, and some on
a quarterly basis. It is important you determine how frequent
you can expect a pay check if you are going to have financial
control over your business. Many marketers do not have the
financial resources to continue to market a product if they have
to wait a long time before getting paid. Be careful about the
fine print on this. Some merchant's policies stipulate that a
minimum commission amount be accrued before issuing payments.
Again, your personal financial situation will drive the
acceptability of such practices.
Merchant Capability To Track Cookies: Most customers do not buy
on their first visit to a merchant's website. Surprise,
surprise! For this reason, it is vital that the merchant retain
cookies on their website, which is used to ensure that you get
credit when the customer returns and buys at a later date. Check
out how long the cookies last. The longer time frame the cookies
lasts; the better the chance of getting paid!
Does The Merchant Pay On Subsequent Sales?: Some merchants will
only pay commission on sales that come through customers
visiting their site via a direct link from your site. They pay
you nothing for any subsequent purchases that the customer makes
if they visit the merchants site directly. It is important that
you get paid no matter what route the customer returns by if you
are to build a sustainable business.
What Promotional Resources Does The Merchant Offer?: Especially
for marketers on a tight budget, look at the type and quality of
the promotional material that the merchant provides. Do they
provide articles or content that you can use to promote on your
site or free guides, special offers or samples? If the
promotional resources are good it is likely that the merchant
will provide good support for their affiliates as well.
Armed with these basic areas of focus, you should be successful
in identifying merchants ideally suited "to meet your needs",
not the other way around!