To begin your decision-making process, you must first determine exactly what it is that you want.
What are your goals and ambitions? Your goals might be to lead the CPA market or grow your list so large that you will be able to buy an island in the Caribbean. Your aspirations might be to build a business so you can quit your day job. Your ambitions might be for a large and complex business that you will be able to understand and manage thousands of transactions and so many leads for it, or they might be to manage leads for a product that you have never heard of, and yet you will be able to answer all questions about it.
Some people like to keep their goals to themselves, while some like to share them with people like you and me. Whatever your method of doing things, it is your decision.
Weeks before the big day, you should have a clearer idea of your goals and their deadlines.
Having determined your deadline, you have to determine the strategy for achieving it. Some companies prefer traditional door-to-door sales, others use the internet. Others, on the other hand, opt to join a large or small co-op.
Some companies prefer you do everything yourself and pay you nothing for your efforts. Others prefer to pay you a salary for your efforts, in the form of commissions. Some companies like to make you run their business from home, while others prefer from the boardroom, or from the back office. There are many types of affiliate companies.
Finally, you should have a goal or criteria for every company you choose. Does the company pay on a tie basis? Are bonuses and such real? Are members able to join from outside of your country? Do you want to meet the minimum requirements, if so, where are they?
These are questions you should have answered in order to choose the right affiliate program for you.
Now comes the tricky part. Finding the right company. To find the right company, you’ll have to find the right company for you.
Finding the right company:
There are numerous places online where you can look for the right company. Some require membership fees, while others are free, a few send you emails letting you know how your business is performing.
So how do you go about it? You Google the company, looking for their URL, their URL + affiliate program name, and the company name. You sign up for the affiliate programs that are right for you.
Finding the right company with the right affiliate program:
The process of finding the right company starts with the affiliation agreement.
An affiliation agreement is a condition to join the affiliate company wherein you meet their requirements. They have the option to offer you a fully-fledged affiliate program, or only the ability to sell their products. They may also offer you a lower fee than the competition. It’s up to them.
Once you’ve agreed to the requirements, they now present you with a list of products they think you can sell, and how much they think you’ll make. How do you find a product that’s right for you, as an affiliate?
Consider the pros and cons.
It’s important that you understand all the pros and cons of every product that you’ll be selling. Don’t just look at the financial aspect; think about how the product will benefit your customers. How it can enhance their life, and make their life easier. Would you buy that product? What will it do for your website?
If you’re going to promote digital products, paid with real cash, with guaranteed refunds, are easy to download, and come in a fast file, you’re going to sell a lot of them. Digital products are great because they can be downloaded as soon as paid for. If the product you’re promoting is a digital item, or downloadable instantly, it will mean a lot less hassle for the customer to receive his product.
What if the product you’re promoting is physical? Or, is very costly to produce? All those physical products will mean more money out of your pocket, at the end of the day, what will make more money, and is better for you, a lot of your visitors will do a lot of your work for you and will buy from you, once they’re in the know about the product, it will be a lot easier to recommend it.
How about a product that is a bit of both? Physical and digital? Or more expensive to produce, but it’s a product that people will buy? How about all of the above? What you do with a product, is your call, it all depends on how you see the product.
After choosing your product, you’ll need to focus on your market and your niche. Identify the problems that your market is facing, and what problems are your own. That way, you’ll be able to identify what type of people will be buying your product and where your product will be marketed. Then you’ll need to build a website, but that’s not the hard part, your website will be the gateway to your sale and the selling process. How you promote your website is up to you, but, the more you promote your site, the higher your conversion rate, and the higher your earnings.
Your affiliate program will make you a lot of money, but, it will take time, and effort, and focus. If you do it right, your business will grow and flourish, and if you do it wrong, you’ll just have to put up with the frustration, and cold feet, that come with business decisions made without enough research.