What to check for when joining an affiliate program

[DaveSpencer]

When I'm looking for a new affiliate program to join, I normally would check a few things first.

1. Check to see if their sites functions properly, if not then I would not join the program as how can I expect to make money, if my visitors I send their way can't even be able to use their site properly.

2. Check if the design looks good or not - if the design doesn't, then its likely to lower the conversion rates which is not good considering I'm putting in so much work to send the traffic to the affiliate site.

3. What affiliate tracking software they use - some affiliate softwares you can get for free. If the program wants to gain affiliates and pay them, well using a free software doesn't look good. It just shows that they probably can't afford the paid software solutions, which doesn't look good when it comes to paying their affiliates.

4. Check the affiliate programs site to see if it has more contact details than just an email form. Other contact details include things like phone number, company address, etc. Just having an email contact form puts me off from joining them as if companies don't want to pay, then all they have to do is pretend their email form was not working or your emails must have went to their spam filter.

5. Finally, I would use webmaster/affiliate forums to check an affiliate programs reputation, support, how well they pay, etc.

[alanwalters]

I think the most important things is the payment terms.
How do they pay? How often do they pay? How much do they pay? What do they pay for (sale, lead, click, etc)? Is there a minimum payout amount? These payment terms are something you want to take note of and compare with other programs.

[Dave.W]

Good info Dave, something I would like to add here is most the top and reliable affiliate programs are advertised on trust worthy and reliable affiliate networks such as C.J.(Commission Junction), Click bank and affiliate window. Moreover online reviews could give a breif idea about this the particular program

[craigweissonline]

I have to agree with checking the payment terms and periodicity, but you should verify how many people are getting paid from that program.

[gustoads]

You should check whether it worth to be on that program. In terms of its stability and the income you can gain in joining that certain activity or recourse.

[moivefreak]

IMO if you want to play it safe use a big name like clickbank. Most people are familiar with clickbank which will add trust and confidence to buyers as well.

[movers]

Here is an interesting thing you can check for to give youself a boost over the competition. Find out if they track phone orders. Lots of the psychic reading affiliate programs provide unqiue phone numbers for each affiliate but they are not pay per call programs but pay per sale. So if the sales drops from the web to the phone during the ordering process, then you still get paid. Plus you can advertise the phone number at times instead of an affiliate link to stay under the google radar as an affiliate. That could mean higher rankings in search.

[aditd]

I think the point 3 should be number 1. I heard about a lot of "lost" sales due to the tracking system. And that means no money for you.

[tplink]

join a affiliate program which give you a huge amount of money from a one sale.

[danviettravel]

Very nice tips! I think they are really necessary for people who are starting an affiliate program.

[movers]

I like programs that offer a wide variety of marketing materials. And i am not just talking banner selection but also video clips, product feeds, etc.

[movielinks]

I am a newbie in affiliate marketing. your tips gonna be very useful for me

[dorothy456]

Thanks For Sharing Great Tips ! And it would be very helpful Information in your Business.

[eveadam]

One of my friends is earning using affiliate marketing and suggested me to go for it. I was little skeptical initially but not after reaching this forum. Thanks all for your valuable points.

[betty]

Good points on which you have work out coz these are the basic information which need to be verified for any newbie who want to join this programme.

Thanks a lot for sharing such a useful tips.

[gudboy7810]

If you choose CJ then CJ is the best affiliate

[kline]

Originally Posted by tplink

join a affiliate program which give you a huge amount of money from a one sale.

- Let's admit it sometime we do focus on how lucrative the affiliate program before we join right? That is our first priority. If not all of us I think most of us. Next to that are the keypoints that you have said.

[simranbebi]

The pros are that you will have others helping you sell your products and then you normally only pay them once they have sold the item so you can't really loose out on that part of it.
The cons are that there is quite alot of work involved and you have to advertising your affiliate program just like a site to get affiliates interested in signing up. It's not an easy task running an affiliate program, but you can let 3rd party networks take most of your workload of you by paying them a little extra so that they can practically run it and help get affiliates for you.

[crystal.barba123]

my first thing to check...is that what commission they pay to us.. and payment modes.. and payment time....

[Caspir]

What I want to see before joining a affiliate network is, do they provide you Data feed files for free as I believe in creating unique affiliate store for promoting products.