What makes for an irresistible affiliate offer for your visitors? Is it the flashy design and advertising? Is it the compelling, well-written landing page? Is it the perceived value and associations that are doing the promotions?
All of these factors are something to keep in mind when determining which affiliate offer is best for your business. This article will share the before and after of choosing affiliate offers.
The Research BEFORE Using an Affiliate Program
Here at AffiliatePrograms.com, we believe that you should use a combination of research and gut judgment when determining which affiliate offer is right for you; the beginning of this process is, firstly, finding locations of reputable affiliate programs.
Mingle at Industry Events and Schmooze with Affiliates
Industry events can be costly but the information you take back, after attending the event, far outweighs the monetary investment to attend.
While at an industry event, take some time to mingle with other individuals at the event and see if they’re willing to reveal information about their business and which affiliate programs they promote.
Browse Affiliate Program Directories
Affiliate network directories, such as one hosted on AffiliatePrograms.com, gives you a comprehensive list of available affiliate networks based on criteria for your business needs.
Directories are moderated and condensed to share the best available offers.
Programs to help the decision making process without the hassle of endlessly searching. And, the potential of joining a not-so-friendly network.
Reverse Engineer the Competitors
Advertising is money but the underbelly of your competitor’s ads have a mountain of research (not counting investment) behind their promotions which tells you it may be worthwhile to pursue.
Using online advertising tools, track the average costs for promoting ads on various networks. View the commission structure for the promoted product or service, remove the cost of the ad, and you will find the profit margin which should give you a clear indication of a valuable offer.
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These methods of finding affiliate programs and offers are just the beginning of determining what works for your own business. Now, let’s move onto the personal elements of promoting offers in your affiliate business.
Measuring which Affiliate Offers work for YOU
In the world of affiliate marketing, not all offers are treated the same.
Despite the value, some offers don’t convert whereas flashy products can often turn incredible numbers.
Your job is to determine offers that are best for your audience and not just your bottom line.
The Offer Relevancy
There’s no purpose in promoting a product that has no relation to the type of website you operate.
A gambling affiliate offer won’t work if you’re hocking lawnmowers.
The affiliate offer, you promote, should fit neatly into your existing content marketing model and audience core.
Products should fulfill a void and need that’s created from the process of what you teach. The area that is beyond the scope of your content or within the format. Offers should be that “extra step” that gives closure to learning a new technique, skill or personal fulfillment.
Your Audience Economic Level
It’s a big word but it simply means how much money your audience earns — their salaries.
High priced affiliate products come with a higher commission but you won’t be earning them if they’re too far out of the reach of your audience.
Use website visitor tools, such as Compete.com, to determine your ideal visitor. Combine your reports from analytic tools to paint an image of who’s likely to buy.
After your research, find an affiliate offer that fits the amount that your visitors are likely to pay.
Diversify your Income Sources
Like relevancy, you should also take the time to find different “tiered” affiliate offers to promote within your affiliate business.
A single product promotion sets you up for great failure if it bombs.
Multiple products, set at different levels of value and pricing, creates a buffer. Likewise, you’ll find that many visitors aren’t ready to spend high amounts of money on big offers and will opt for introductory products. On the flip side, you may find people that want the whole package.
Make multiple products, relevant of each other, available to your visitors and you’re set on a path for success.
Are You Getting the Support You Need?
You may be well versed in the world of affiliate marketing but there are always times when you need a secondary opinion or additional help to turn a campaign into a complete success.
Support, through:
- Design work
- Swipe files
- Copy
- Promotion
- Networking
…and follow up can have significant benefits when choosing your affiliate offers.
Affiliate offers that have a strong support system help build upon your success, allow you to free up more of your time, and has the potential to grow, vertically, as your relationship with the affiliate program (and its managers) develops.
What’s the Offer and Payout Structure?
Of course, money is an issue for nearly every affiliate marketer because, after all, who wants to do hours of work to only earn pennies?
When sourcing an affiliate program, take a gander at the models and payout types.
Determine which works best for your audience, relevancy of your business, and the potential for growth.
For example, an offer that pays as residuals (over time per customer) may have greater earnings in the long-run vs. a simple, quick sale. Likewise, combine promotions which have back-end and cross-selling action to further improve your affiliate commissions per customer you send to the offer.
All-in-all, the success of your affiliate marketing comes down to finding reliable programs and offers that are based on your personal research and recommendations; combined with factoring the elements of what you want from the offer, you’re better off than the majority of new affiliate marketers that blindly rush into promoting anything that comes their way.
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Use this article wisely.
Find affiliate offers that fit your business model and you will see great success for every bit of work you do.
