How to Evaluate an Affiliate Program

How to Evaluate an Affiliate Program
By Sanjay Johari

There are thousands of affiliate programs offering wide range
of benefits to their affiliates. However, many of these
programs and the claims they make are not to be trusted. Good
affiliate programs provide tremendous earning opportunities,
but they need to be evaluated to distinguish them from
doubtful ones. There are several factors to consider before
someone decides to join any affiliate program.

Products: Organizations which operate affiliate programs
generally have some products to sell. These products can be in
form of physical products, e-products or services. It is
important to ascertain that the organization has some products
to sell and that it recruits affiliates to help them in
running their business. One should be very careful with any
organization that has recruitment of affiliates as their main
business. It is best to avoid such organizations because their
affiliate structure is like a house of cards which can crumble
at slightest impact.

The organizations which have products to sell and market them
thru affiliate programs cut down on the cost of advertising
and distribution. This amounts to considerable savings which
they share with their affiliates. If a new affiliate is
already familiar with the products, this can be helpful but
this is not a necessary pre-condition to join affiliate
program. New affiliates can learn about the products quite fast.

Organization`s Track Record : It is not difficult to find out
about the organization before joining it affiliate program.
Search engines are one of the sources which can be used for
this purpose. Verifying the testimonials presented by the
organization is another source of information. The
organization should have proven track record of operating
their programs for several years successfully. If the
organization is new or just starting, the person starting the
program should be well known with good credibility. This is
precaution against joining organizations which promise get-
rich-quick scheme and then disappear.

Support Availble to Affiliates : Most of the new affiliates
joining any affiliate program are new to the field of
marketing on the internet. They need guidance and support for
promoting their business and earning money for themselves. It
is in the interest of the organization to help their
affiliates to succeed. These organizations are in their
business for considerable longer time than the affiliates, are
more knowledgeable about their market and about the ways of
promoting their products. They are in best position to provide
their affiliates with proper guidance. Many organizations have
excellent support system by way of trainings, tutorials,
articles, books, marketing plans, marketing tools, forums just
to name a few. These are generally available from websites
accessible to the affiliates.

Apart form the promotional material and information available
from the website, personal guidance can be vital. A new
affiliate may not be familiar with all the resources available
and will look for mentoring at least in initial stages. It
should be remembered by the affiliate that her success will
add to the success of the organization, the organization is
obliged to help her.

Payment : Another factor to consider is the mode and frequency
of payment to the affiliates. The affiliate should make sure
that this suits her. Just to give an example - many
organizations make payments thru PayPal, but PayPal does not
transmit money to all the countries. Such details should be
checked before putting time and effort for any affiliate
program.

Affiliate Structure : There are many different ways in which
organizations build up their affiliate structure. Many
organizations have single tier structure in which affiliate is
only paid commission for sale. Other affiliate structures are
2-level or multi-level deep in which the affiliate earns also
from the efforts of personally sponsored members. In turn, the
affiliate is expected to help her sponsored members to earn
for themselves. This is one great feature of multi-level
marketing leading to leveraged earning. You can read my
article on leveraged earning at this URL :

http://www.sanjay-j.com/artlever.html (http://www.sanjay-j.com/
artlever.html)

There are still more variations in the structure. Some
organizations allow a limited number of affiliates directly
under each affiliate. There is no "ideal" affiliate structure.
But it is important to have clarity in the structure and the
affiliate should understand the structure.

Compensation Plan : There is lot of variation in compensation
plans starting from simple commission to more elaborate plan
in which affiliates additionally earn thru the efforts of
their sponsored downline members and also from a common pool.
I personally favor plans which have provision for leveraged
earnings where teamwork really counts. Residual earning is
another attractive feature of affiliate marketing which can
build into sizeable income over a period of time. I am not
against any compensation plan so long as it is understandable
and appears reasonable. You have perhaps noticed that I have
put this factor as the last consideration. However it is an
important consideration after all other considerations are
found acceptable.

Persistence Pays - It takes time to build up business with any
affiliate program, no matter how good the program appears.
After joining any affiliate program after thorough evaluation,
one needs to stay with the program giving it time to build the
earning. Get-rich-quick scheme do work some times but they are
rare exception rather than the rule and cannot be depended
upon.

This small slogan should be ingrained in the thinking when
someone joins an affiliate program:

PERSISTENCE PAYS.

Written by Gian Luigi Ruggeri © 2001 - All rights reserved
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