Picking the Best Web Affiliate Programs - A Report Card
I caught this guest post article over at 5 Star Affiliate Programs Blog that I thought could be really useful to affiliates. Choosing affiliate programs can be daunting. What factors should you really consider?
This post made by Loren Baker from Search Engine Journal names Five things to consider when choosing an affiliate program:
She's highlighted some good things to consider. Just a quick added note about Payment Thresholds..
Pay Threshold.. this is relatively minor, but it reminded me of a situation I had early on in my Affiliate Marketing business. I was promoting a program that gave out $100 commissions. And I made a sale! I was pumped to say the least..
Until I learned what their policy was? This was a very focused, low volume, campaign that I hadn't really expanded yet. But I found out they didn't pay out if someone only made one sale.
You had to have more than one for them to release your commission! So even though I made $100 I never got paid it because I didn't make the second sale right away.. Needless to say I dumped that program for another selling the same goods. ;)
I would have loved to expand my campaign and make them more revenue.. but they were being dorks so.. C-Ya! How many merchant's lose potentially good affiliates because of dumb policies..?
Just goes to show you that it should be a consideration.
Threshold's can often be adjusted by you as well with different programs. So they might default a $100 threshold, but you could go in and lower it to as little as $10 in some cases.
Some great info otherwise in that post; definitely check it out! Not every affiliate program or merchant is created equal. You can have two merchant's selling the same product, but one does poor and the other rocks! There are reasons for that.. and these metrics can often help you identify those situations up front.
Enjoy!
-Matt Levenhagen
