If you are going to make money with affiliate programs you need to follow some basic guidelines. First of all, the product or service you plan to promote must be in demand and of quality. You can't sell what nobody wants and you can't sell rubbish! At least not very much of it and not for very long!
You'll also personally believe in a good product or service, and that will be felt by your audience when they read your recommendation, greatly increasing the likelihood that they will make a purchase once they reach the merchant site.
One of the most important ingredients for success on the Internet is gaining your visitors' trust. Ultimately, you will lose out big time over the long term if you associate yourself with substandard products or services.
Secondly, the company itself must be reliable from the perspective of both affiliates and customers. PushButtonPublishing is a company with an excellent reputation in this respect...
This is the sort of thing you want!
There are many others too. Search for information on different companies and their affiliate programs. Pay special attention to forum posts and subscribe to quality newsletters to keep up to date.
Check 'em out!
It can be revealing to see how a company responds to any enquiries you may have. There have been two occasions in the recent past where I needed to contact the administrators of affiliate programs I had joined. Neither company replied to my initial email or the subsequent follow up a week later (2 emails is my limit!).
Would you feel confident in the quality of the customer service from these companies, or be certain of timely and/or correct commission payments?
Needless to say, I for one won't be promoting their products.
Get help
Unless you own or have used it, it's quite likely that you won't know much about the product or service you're intending to promote. You may also be new to marketing. So do the smart thing and sign up for affiliate programs that provide you with lots of help and information.
Even if you have some previous experience in traditional marketing techniques, the unique environment of the Internet lends itself to powerful new marketing strategies that you need to learn about.
In addition to the link above, another two of the best are Marlon Sanders MILCER club together with Corey Rudl's Tips for Profit. Both of these guys will fire you up, giving you all the help you need.
Which Affiliate Programs to Join?
It's generally accepted that you should only promote affiliate programs for products or services that exhibit some synergy with, or in some way relate to the content of your site.
Whilst that is true, outside of the most obvious examples you may not be sure what other products and services to include in this bracket unless you already know a great deal about your visitors. I would therefore suggest you make programs with direct synergy your main FOCUS whilst still keeping an open mind on other less directly related options.
There's no harm in trying!
The important point here is to test and see what interests your visitors. Many webmasters have been greatly (and often happily) surprised at the results of a little trial and error. However, be realistic - putting up links or banners for specialist markets that bear no relation whatsoever to the content of your site will almost certainly be a total waste of time.
You must still target your market, it's just a matter of degree. Join affiliate programs that offer products a large number of your visitors could logically be interested in. Your not going to make many sales if you offer mountain climbing holidays on your "Seniors Travel Club" site, but a luggage sales affiliate program could work nicely.
Programs you may want to try that don't obviously fall into the same category as your main subject should be more general interest in nature, yet still related to your particular visitors (spectacle sunglasses might be tested on the site above, for example). Once you've found a few programs that generate a positive response >stick with them and look at ways to increase your conversion ratio.
Now let's look at choosing your affiliate income.
