Choosing the right affiliate scheme is essential if your affiliate marketing business is to be a success, and you are going to make money. For many new affiliates, it can be difficult to tell if an offer is going to be successful, simply by looking at the retailers sales page. There are certain signs that an affiliate scheme is likely to do well, and some networks and larger retailers will provide you with a range of information on the performance of there offers, which makes your research even easier. Here are some of the things you need to look out for to make sure you choose the profitable affiliate schemes.
Are other affiliates promoting it?
If you’ve chosen one of the affiliate schemes run by a smaller retailer, there might not be any information available on how well it has been running. One of the easiest ways to see if it’s worth considering for your affiliate marketing business, is to see if other affiliates are promoting it. Try searching for the specific products or offers and look for websites, other than the retailers, that are marketing the product.
Search with common keywords related to the product or business, and see if these have been targeted by other marketers. If other affiliates are promoting the retailer’s offer, particularly if they are using paid advertising methods like Google Adwords, there is a good chance these affiliate schemes are making them money – and there shouldn’t be any reason why it wouldn’t do the same for you.
How much money has it made?
Many of the affiliate marketing networks are able to track all the referrals and conversions from their affiliates, which provides some useful data you can use when choosing your offers. For a start, they should be able to tell you how much money the affiliate schemes have made. Sometimes called “Network Earnings” this is the total amount of commissions that have been paid to affiliates. As a general rule, the higher the figure, the more money has been paid to Affiliate Marketing Businesses, which means the offer is likely to do well, based on current/past performance.
How well does it convert?
Another key indicator you want to look for, is how well does an offer covert. Many networks will provide an “Earnings per Click” figure for their affiliate schemes, which tells affiliates, on average, how much each person they refer to the offer is going to be worth to them. Basically, it’s a measure of the commissions earned, divided by the number of customers referred – so the higher the figure, the better, as this means affiliates will get a good conversion rate.
How much will you get for each sale?
This simply tells affiliates how much they will get for each conversion – which could be generating a sale or a lead for the retailer. The “Amount per Sale/Lead” will vary from offer to offer, and while some might seem quite low, they could still be profitable if they have really good conversion rates. Lead generation offers usually have a low earning per conversion, but getting your traffic to part with their e-mail address should be a lot easier than getting them to spend $50 on something – and this is why some Cost per Action affiliates make a lot of money.
Are there any restrictions?
Finally, are there any restrictions on how your affiliate marketing business can promote the offer? If you are using paid advertising like Google AdWords, a lot of retailers won’t allow you to use their brand or company name. Some affiliate schemes might not allow you to use e-mail marketing, which means it might not be the right offer for you if you have a huge list of prospects you usually market to. In general, businesses offering affiliate programs are happy to let you use most legitimate methods of marketing, but always make sure you check the terms of the various affiliate schemes, so you don’t risk getting your affiliate marketing business in to trouble.
These are some of the questions you should consider when you are looking at promoting a new affiliate scheme, but even when you consider them all together, they won’t always tell you if it is going to be profitable or not. Whether an offer is successful depends on how well affiliates choose to promote it. However, if you follow this advice and research the different affiliate schemes as much as possible, before you invest time and money promoting them, you should find that your affiliate marketing business has more successes than failures.
