What to look for in an affiliate program

The first thing to look at is, is there an affiliate program that you are interested in promoting?

You could find a market, then look for an affiliate program in that market first, but I like to browse through affiliate programs first, then check out the market itself.

High payouts

• Digital products
  • 60-75% If it's a one time sale
  • 40% If it's a recurring billing product
  • $1 or more if it is a zip code offer (at a cost per acquisition network, such as Azoogle or CPA Empire)
  • $1 or more if it is an email based CPA offer (at a cost per aquisition network)
• Physical Products
  • At least $40 per sale (or 50%). For example a $400 television, if it is paying $40 commission, then this is worth looking at, or if an $80 mp3 player is paying $40 commission, then this is worth looking at too.

"Gravity"

In Cickbank each product comes with a 'gravity' rating.

• High Gravity (e.g. 20+): Indicates lots of affiliates have managed to make a sale recently (but take care if it is an IM product as that can also mean that a lot of people have been buying through their own affiliate link (not likely in niche markets, such as dog training).
• Low Gravity (e.g. < 20): All products have to start somewhere and that doesn't mean that it won't be profitable (if it has low gravity), but you have to be good at spotting a product that will convert well.

If the sales copy looks poor and unconvincing, then you probably wouldn't want to experiment in promoting a low gravity product. The advantage if you do pick a good one is that it can mean that you have less competition.

The next step is to find out if there is a market for the product.

It's very important that lots of people are searching for that product, and it is especially good if there are lots of niched search terms.

For example: If you search freekeywords.wordtracker.com, you'll find that there is a relatively low market for the 'singstar guide' search terms, so you probably wouldn't waste your time promoting a Singstar Guide product (unless you already have an existing mailing list to do with computer games or singing, in which case you'd make a judgement call).

But you might find that there are a lot of people searching for 'world of warcraft guide' and even better, that there are a lot of related search terms, like 'wow guide' and 'world of warcraft gold guide', and 'horde leveling guide' and so on.

Another example of a search term with lots of niched search terms is 'Dog Training'. There are many breeds of dogs, and types of dog problems, for example 'german shepherd training', 'dog digging', 'boxer dog training', 'stop pitbull aggression' and so on.

The next thing I like to look for is, are there many people competing in this market? If I search for lots of the different search terms to do with a market, I prefer markets that have a lot of competitors bidding on the different google adwords listings. I know that if others are paying money in that market (especially if there are lots of others in there), then it is probably a profitable market worth me looking into further.

Sure there may be a lot of profitable search terms for me to advertise on that others haven't yet thought of, but if there isn't anyone advertising on the move obvious search terms, such as 'dog training', then there is a good chance that it is an unprofitable market and I should be cautious.

The final thing that you could consider, it's not 100% necessary, but it is worth considering... Are there multiple products that you can sell in this market?

The reason that you may wish to look at that is that if you are planning on building a mailing list, then you might plan on selling lots of products to the same list. For example, if you are promoting dating products, you might sell people a product about how to attract the opposite sex, and then 2 weeks later in your mailing list sequence, you might promote a 'how to gain self confidence' product, then later you might promote a 'how to start conversations' product, and so forth. The number of products available for you to promote in a market can lead you get more excited about a particular market.

Photo: Booleansplit