Navigating Affiliate Programs: Key Factors to Consider

Ensuring a Good Fit

Before signing up for multiple affiliate programs, take a moment to consider your current website visitors. What types of products and information would they be most interested in? For instance, if your website caters to pet lovers, an affiliate program selling pet supplies might be a good fit. However, a program selling books on controversial pet topics may not resonate with your audience. If your affiliate program doesn't appeal to your site's visitors, your success will be limited.

Quality Over Quantity

While it may be tempting to join numerous affiliate programs and plaster your website with various banners, this approach can be counterproductive. Overloading your pages with banners and text links can make your site look cluttered, slow down page loading times, and confuse your visitors. This can result in less click-through traffic, not more. It's advisable to focus on a few affiliate programs and keep your pages simple, easy to read, and visually appealing.

Boosting Your Click-Through Traffic

Your web pages should be simple and not overloaded with banners, especially those that change rapidly or flash, as they can be distracting and annoying to your visitors. Don't rely solely on banners to generate click-through traffic for your affiliate program. Adding text links in addition to banners can significantly increase your click-through rates. Banner ads have become so common that many people ignore them. By adding simple text links that explain more about your affiliate program's products, you can capture your visitors' attention and increase your click-through traffic. The placement of these banners and text links is also crucial. Positioning them at the bottom of your pages will not yield as many hits as if they were displayed in a more prominent place on your page.

Do Your Homework Before Joining

Conducting some research before joining an affiliate program can pay off in the long run. Here are some questions to consider before committing to any program:

• Is there a joining fee? Most affiliate programs today are free to join.
• When are commission checks issued? Programs vary, with some issuing checks monthly, others quarterly, etc. Many programs also set a minimum earned commission amount that an affiliate must meet or exceed before a check is issued.
• What is the hit per sale ratio? This number tells you how much traffic you need to generate before you can expect to earn a commission from a sale.
• How are referrals from an affiliate's site tracked, and for how long do they remain in the system? You need to be confident in the program's ability to track those people you refer from your site. This is the only way you'll get credit for a sale. The duration that these people stay in the system is also important, as the visitor may not buy initially but may return later to make a purchase. Will you still get credit for the sale six months from now?
• What kind of affiliate stats are available? Does the program offer detailed stats? Are these online and available in real time? It's important to be able to see your individual stats, so you know how many impressions, hits, and sales you have generated from your site.
• Does the program pay just commissions on sales, or do they also pay for hits and/or impressions? Getting paid for impressions and/or hits, in addition to commissions on sales, is important. This is especially true if the program has a low sales to hit ratio.
• Who is the online retailer? Find out who you are doing business with. Is this a solid company? How do they fill orders? What types of payments do they accept? How long have they been in business? What are their return policies and how do these affect you? What products do they sell and what is their average sale amount? The more you know about the retailer offering the affiliate program, the easier it will be for you to determine if this is the program for you and your site.
• Is this a one or two-tier program? A single-tier program pays you only for the business you personally generate. A two-tier program pays you for your business, plus it pays you a commission on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor into their program. Some two-tier programs will also pay you a small fee on each new affiliate you sponsor - a recruitment fee.
• Finally, what is the amount of commission paid? (And fee for impressions/hits - if available.) 5% - 20% is common for commissions paid on sales. $.01 - $.05 is common for the amount paid for each hit (click through). If you find a program that also pays for impressions, don't expect the amount paid to be much at all. From these numbers, you can see that the program's average sale amount and hit to sale ratio are extremely important. This is especially true if yours is a low traffic site to begin with.

Understanding these aspects of affiliate programs is crucial if you plan to incorporate any such program into your website. This knowledge will provide you with additional insight and help you select the right program for your site.