Adsense is certainly one of the most known program to monetize a blog, and has become practically ubiquitous on the Internet. But there are times when it is worth considering alternatives.
Affiliate programs are a great alternative to monetize a blogs. It give you the ability to create a business relationship between the merchant of a product or service and a website owner who promotes the merchant’s offerings. Affiliates (website owner) earn a commission from the program owner for each referral those results, simply by putting an affiliate banners on their own website. I always write on my blog about these different forms of revenue but this time I also decided to give you some useful advices on how choose the right affiliate program.
I’ve just put together 8 tips for anyone that are approaching to Affiliate Programs for the first time and want to decide what is better and what not.
There are many ways to choose an affiliate program, which I have summarized below and have spoken about them in the later paragraphs.

   1. Choose a profitable product in a good market
   2. Check affiliate programs relate to your topic
   3. Quality affiliate programs
   4. Commission
   5. Pay structure would be the most clear
   6. Topic
   7. Affiliate Program Directories
   8. Reader Location

Choose a profitable product in a good market

If you are new to ecommerce, one thing you must know is that there are literally thousands of different affiliate programs out there trying to sell anything. One of the great mistake many affiliate do is that they decide to use the same product as everybody else, instead to take advantage from the bandwagon. In this case, you are at a statistical disadvantage that can not do generating meaningful revenue. Take advantage from affiliate programs that offer unique products in a ripe market.

Check affiliate programs relate to your topic

For instance: If you’re running a site about credit card, you should look for credit card affiliate programs(business credit card, credit card student, and so on).

Quality affiliate programs

When deciding what affiliate programs to choose you need to be extremely careful. Look for those programs that are constantly expanding their product offerings. This approach is good for two reasons: First will improve your revenue expansion. Second, your customers will keep coming back to see what’s new. Seek for programs that are dynamic and have a growth potential. 

Commission

When I’m on the lookout for an affiliate program, the first thing I look for is the payout. Commission Junction and Pepperjamnetwork are two of the best affiliate marketing programs in the industry with ton of products. An adequate commission rate is a great way if you want get more revenue with less traffic. In my view I consider that 15% is not decent while I think that You should look for programs that go for commissions that are around 25% or higher per product. 

Pay structure would be the most clear

You need to understand the terms and conditions that are bundled with the affiliate program. Any serious affiliate program should clarify how many you will receive for your effort. Unfortunately, yet there are some programs that no present clear pay rates. Unless the merchant spells out exactly what you will receive for your efforts, avoid them. 

Topic

When selecting an affiliate program to use on your blog, make sure to choose affiliate programs relating to the main topic of your web site. Ask questions first before you join an affiliate program. What is my topic? What do people come to my blog looking for? What types of products my readers want to buying?
Affiliate Programs Directories – If you want to jump right away into testing and become an affiliate partner, below I’ve put what I consider the best affiliates programs in the industry:

  • E-Junkie Affiliate
  • Clickbank Affiliate
  • Commission Junction Affiliate
  • Pepperjamnetwork Affiliate
  • Shareasale Affiliate
Reader Location

If you have a web site with a lot of traffic from different locations, you should try to figure out as much you can about the locality of your readers.Check up if your traffic come from a particular location. For instance – The problem of Amazon is that they do not ship electronics internationally. In this case would better find a more localized affiliate program if you have a gadget site with a large readership from Australia.

————————————————————————————————————————

Nicola Deiana lives as full time blogger and editor of the3dtechnologies.com and nickdeiana.com, and he want to show you what he has learned and how he makes $2000+ with his blogs and websites.