We can feel overwhelmed when choosing an affiliate offer.
There’s so much access to online business opportunities.
You may have dozens of topics, interests, and hobbies.
You’ll feel scatter-brained on where you’d like to start in the first place.
Once you do start settling in on a niche you’re now faced with the monumental task of finding the products and services worth of promotion. You go from thousands of various affiliate programs and platforms down to a handful. And, you want to make sure you choose the best one.
Here are some of the important questions to ask yourself (and others) before you commit the majority of your efforts into a new affiliate venture:
Q1: Where do I see this niche in X amount of years?
Where the industry is going will play heavily when choosing an affiliate offer (or program).
There are plenty of hot products that are merely a flash in the pan.
Good affiliates capitalize on trends because they place a great deal of effort on keeping them on track. However, the average affiliate trying to jump on some hot trend is likely to get burned because the time they do have something out there the marketplace has already begun to make the shift.
When you’re looking at products or services to promote don’t just look at what the market dictates at this moment.
Figure out the up-and-coming players that could disrupt the industry (or keep it aligned). Or, follow Google trends to peak at where things are going.
By keeping your head to the future you can give yourself a guess how long a promotion may last so you aren’t chasing a rabbit down the hole.
Q2: How quickly can I get to the market?
We all would love to create the next Facebook or have some fantastic affiliate campaign you hear touted by the A-list affiliate marketers.
But:
Let’s get real with ourselves because they have teams of individuals at their disposal to go after an interest.
You are very limited on time.
What you don’t want is to sink six months to a year into a project that comes up flat.
The quicker you can get to the market the better chances you have of making it stick and if things do go wrong you can pull out quickly.
This is why you must validate offers before committing to building anything.
Q3: What can I leverage to avoid redundancy?
You wouldn’t buy a franchise just to fight corporate trying to change every detail.
You’d buy into a system that has been proven to work.
Why would you do the same when it comes to your online projects?
You don’t have to start fresh each and every time.
A good way of expediting the process of business building and growth is to:
- Monitor and one-up the competition in their own game
- Siphon competitor leads through better advertising and marketing efforts
- Develop an offer that blows away the competition
- Hire their staff to get a leg-up
- Do them one better with the same tools they frequently use
Hopefully, you’ve kept notes on past projects to know what and what doesn’t work.
These notes (and notes from others) will streamline the foundational work.
So:
When you are ready for choosing an affiliate program or platform it can start earning the moment it goes live.
Q4: Who am I dealing with?
Affiliate marketing is a type of business you’ll want to work with players that know what they’re doing.
On the flip side, you don’t want it to become some boring drudge because old-timers are afraid to change.
Find something that’ll challenge you when seeking opportunities.
Through this challenge, you are willing to try new strategies, interact with new people, grow a fantastic network.
You’ll feel involved in the industry — rather than riding the coat-tails of those before you.
You’re willing to take risks.
You’re level-headed to capitalize on opportunities when the striking is hot.
Business, like anything else, is social so you might as well get to know people in the industry (for better or worse).
Q5: Am I going to have fun with this?
Sure, you could make thousands promoting some product that helps people get rid of warts off their buttocks.
But:
Is it something you really want to do day-in and day-out?
The money is there but I feel it can get old really, really fast.
Affiliate marketing is amazing because it has a startup-feeling — one where there are plenty of risks and rewards.
Playing it safe at every corner will make it feel just like any other job.
Ask yourself whether you’re having fun with the new project
Ask if you can come up with solid reasons to stick with it.
