Affiliate Program Question

[GregK]

I've seen basically two school of thought as far as signing up for affiliate programs goes.

1. Sign up for everything you can get your hands on, try it out and stick with whatever converts.

2. Sign up for a select few after a stringent review process

[JessicaWhite]

I am in the select few group. I would rather focus on a few things then spend all of the time trying to be everywhere at once.

[Johny]

yea thats right1 focus on one to to get the optimum results. Landing in two or more ships can risk your life.

[legitebiz]

I tend to agree, but it is important that you sign up for at least all the most renowned, because here is the thing:

You might well sign up for Clickbank and do just fine, but it turns out that if you have a website about forex, for example, you might also want to promote brokers, and other type of related services that you will not be able to promote through Clickbank.

Simply start with a few, but keep signing up for new programs and research what each one can offer to your business model.

So yes, stick with a few and pursue results first within a small area, but make sure you are not overlooking other good opportunities for the future.

Cheers!

[Coderea]

I think it all depends on the user's choice..if he has knowledge about certain products..he might select few programs and start promoting it ..or if he wants to dive and test the market..he might choose to select every program he has the option to signup.!

[DerekForeal]

It is really a hybrid between one and two. You don't pin your affiliate life on one or two affiliate programs but you don't sign up for a suite of affiliate programs to where you can not flesh out a definite niche to make money.

Speaking from personal preference, I have products and services in varying niches. The ones that receive the majority of my time are the ones that do well and I try to improve the ones that don't before I just abandon and choose a new suite of offers.

[gary121doc]

It all depends on the nature of the competition in the niche you are working. There is stiff competition in retail and travel industry and promoting many merchants on a single site will not give you the desired result.

Do also care about their prices. If the prices of all the merchants are same the customer will confused and will go away from your affiliate site to search for more information.

The ideal strategy for an affiliate should be like:

Promote 2-3 merchants on a single site and give them try. Wait for sometime and check for the performance. You can add one industry leader, one average player and one new player because there are their own benefit of promoting them in that ways. The industry leader will give you low commission but will have higher conversion and the low player will give you higher commission so earning potential is higher.

Never promote all leaders or all new merchants.

One additional strategy which you can apply is to promote 3-4 merchants directly through price comparison tables, product reviews, testimonials and few by banner or text links.

[GregK]

Very good insight Gary. Newer programs sometimes pay more as they are working hard to get the word out. Something big like Amazon converts well but only pays 4-6%.

[AnotherDay]

Great info. I'm new to this, but I'm learning quickly.

[HomeComputerGames]

One exception may be Gambling. People likes lots to choose from and will be back again and again looking for New bonuses.
Having a directory set up in an easy to navigate method is crucial. Categorizing the bonus types is even better.