Affiliate Program Overview

I am sure that a lot of you are wondering what an affiliate program is? Hold on I am about to tell you what they are and what to look for in a good program. Amazon started the affiliate program revolution and now just about everybody with a product to sell on the internet has an affiliate program.

Affiliate programs are designed to be a sharing revenue opportunity between a person or a company that has a product to sell and a person or company that has an avenue to market the products. It is a win-win situation for both sides because the producer or owner of the product does not have to pay a large sales force to make sales. By using an affiliate the company does not have to pay someone unless a sale is made. Conversely, the affiliate does not have to have the overhead of a large business or keep an inventory. The job of the affiliate is to simply send traffic to the sales page of the company and let the company make the sale.

The affiliate gets paid when someone they refer to the company's site buys a product. An affiliate usually gets paid a commission for each sale. However, there are some affiliates that get paid on referrals but for our focus we will just cover affiliate sales.

Now that we have an understanding on what an affiliate program is let's take a look at what a good affiliate program offers.

I am going to make a list of what I look for in an affiliate program and what I think is important. This is not in any particular order they are just items you need to consider when looking for an affiliate program.

• How long has the company been in business? I like to see a minimum of 3 years on a company so I know they have a track record.
• How is the commission schedule structured? Do they pay twice a month, once a month, or every 90 days? I prefer companies that pay at least once a month. I do not know about you but I have a use for my money. Is there a minimum before funds can be released? Some companies require you to have a minimum sales amount before they will release your funds. You need to find out what that minimum is? It could be as little as $10.00 or as much as $1,000.00.
• Are there residual income opportunities? Residual income is getting paid month after month for the same sale. Many companies that have subscriptions or memberships will pay you a percentage of that monthly fee. For example, if site X has a monthly newsletter subscription that costs $35.00 per month and they pay their affiliates a 20% commission then you would earn $7.00 per month on every subscriber that you signed up for as long as they maintain their subscription. So one subscriber earns you $84.00 for the year.
• Is it a multi-tiered affiliate program? Meaning can you sign up sub affiliates and earn override commissions from their sales. You need to look for companies that have at least a 2 tier program and these are pretty common with affiliate programs.
• What is their cookie length and how do they track sales? You want a company that has at least a 90 day cookie. What I mean is that if someone clicks through your website to the company's website and they do not buy today but come back in 30 days that you still get credit for the sale. Avoid affiliate programs that do not provide extended cookies. It is important to find out how they track affiliate sales and you want that to be in real time!
• What kind of support and Marketing materials does the company offer? It is vital to your success that the company has tons of marketing materials to help you promote the product. I mean more than just banner ads, you need sample email ads, classified ads, and different links for different marketing techniques. Make sure the company has good marketing materials. Call their support staff and make sure that they are going to help you become successful. See if they will help you with an ad? It is vital to find companies that are willing to help you become profitable. You will notice that the good companies take pride in marketing materials and support because they know that the more successful you are the more money they are going to make.