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Few Questions to Ask Before Joining an Affiliate
Program
It is never improper to ask questions before
entering an affiliate program. Do not hurry. Take your time in researching
about the program and the product and discern on the answers you get from
different sources. If you do your homework well, you will know which among the
many programs available will be worth joining in.
To help you out in the process, consider the
following questions prepared for your convenience:
·
Does the program ask for a fee for
aspiring affiliates? Though there are credible affiliate programs that ask a
certain fee for its members, you might want to consider programs that are
absolutely free of charge to become a member. The good thing is that most
affiliate programs today offer free affiliate entrance.
·
What is the vendor’s track record?
Remember that you are absolutely dealing with someone you do not really know at
first. It would help ease your doubts if you check the background and track
record of the vendor through online research, participating to related forums
and discussions, checking the statistics of the product and the vendor’s site,
and other methods. The more you know about the vendor offering you the program,
the easier it will be for you to know if the program will work for you.
·
Does the program offer a one-tier or
two-tier program? A single tier program pays only for the business you
generated yourself. As for the two-tier program, it pays for the business and
the commission on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor in your
program. Some two-tier programs also pay affiliate for referring someone to
become an affiliate.
·
How much commission will you get? Every
program differs in their rate. Most affiliates are paid 5% - 25% for every sale
made, and .01% - .05% for every hit on the banner or text link. The percentage
for impressions made is not that much, too. It is best to find a program that
offers all these three for maximum earnings.
·
How fast do they give the commission?
Affiliate programs have different systems of paying their affiliates. Some
issue their checks once a month, every quarter, or any other mode. Some require
an affiliate to make a minimum number of sales and commission before processing
the payment. Whatever the system is, decide which mode best suits your
financial flow.
·
What is the hit per sale ratio? This
factor is extremely important in determining your traffic requirement to make a
commission from a sale. The hit per sale ratio simply is the average number of
clicks made to a banner or text link to generate a sale based on all affiliate
statistics.
·
How does the program provide affiliate
statistics? Statistics include impressions, hits, and sales generated from your
site. Impressions are the number of time the banner or text link was viewed by
a visitor in your site. The hit is the number of clicks made on the banner and
text links. There data should be available online anytime the affiliate decides
on checking them out.
·
Will you also get paid for the hits and
impressions made aside from the actual sale? If the program offers low hit per
sale ratio, it is best if the program offers incentives or payment all hits and
impressions made to banner and text links. With such benefit, the affiliate
gets additional earnings to the sales commissions.
·
How does the system track referrals from
an affiliate site? How long does the information remain in the system? Since
referrals are directed automatically to the vendor’s site, you must make sure
that you are credited for those referrals. Otherwise, you may never or may not
sometimes be credited if a sale has been made. Equally important is the period
it takes the system to store the referrals information. Sometimes, visitors
don’t readily buy the product for some reasons but come back after deciding to
buy. In that case, the program must still make sure that you are credited for
such sale.
The questions are few and you may of course add
more in your list. The ones pointed above are the most basic and gives you the
most important things to consider when joining an affiliate program. The
choices are many and varied. Asking those questions trims down everything until
you reach the best choice. |