Affiliate marketers are constantly struggling with what products and offers to support. That is because many of us find it hard to narrow down the hundreds, if not thousands, of markets and niches that are available to affiliate marketers. After working in affiliate marketing promoting different products and systems for numerous markets and niches, I have come up with three simple rules for choosing a market/niche.

Three Rules for Choosing a Market/Niche to Promote In

1. Make sure the offer is already successful. You can find numbers and different metrics through your affiliate network that you deal with or from the program itself if it isn’t involved in working with a network. There is always the draw to try to promote a program or product that is new because you may think that you will have that first to market advantage. This maybe true, but remember that this may cost you a lot of money if you can’t get your traffic to convert. In my opinion, it is much better to go with a program with a proven track record because it gives you a benchmark of what to expect. This is especially important if you are just starting out in affiliate marketing.

 2. Look at EPC. Earnings per click or EPC is the gold standard for comparing offers to promote. EPC is simply calculated as total revenue ($) divided by total (#) of clicks. Example: if a campaign for an article submission software program paid a total of $500 and there were 1000 clicks your EPC would equal $0.50. If you belong to an affiliate network the EPC results are visible for comparison to other offers.  

3. Look for markets that you are personally attracted to. Leading affiliate networks report that there most successful affiliates promote offers that they are interested in. It makes sense doesn’t it? If the topic that you are trying to promote is something close to your heart and you are passionate about it, that passion is going to come through in your promotion and also keep you going when you need a little kick in the pants.

 Those are my three rules for choosing a niche market to promote to. If you incorporate those three rules the next time you are struggling to choose a market to promote in you will easily narrow down your choices. Ultimately, this will lead to more success making money online.

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Affiliate Programs: A Review of Affiliate Marketing

If you are going to be serious about affiliate marketing you have to learn the basics of what is it and how it can really help you make money online. 

First some basic vocabulary: a person who  signs up to find products to sell  from their marketplace is called an Affiliate. A person who has developed a product and needs to find websites/people to sell it is called a Vendor. Some vendors sell their products through affiliate networks such as ClickBank or they have their own programs which they administer themselves.  Some affiliate programs use ‘advertiser’ and ‘publisher’. The advertiser is the party with a product to sell, while the publisher is the website owner who would like to promote products on their site to receive sales commissions.

I generally tend to only use affiliate programs that are part of a respected affiliate network. Affiliate networks that have been around for more than a couple of years and have a history of ALWAYS making payments to their members. I’ve heard too many horror stories of affiliates not getting paid and also stories of not getting the proper credit for sales that were referred to the vendor. In the end, the scam artists soon disappear as word gets out on non-payment. This is rare of course, but still I like the idea of being part of a large, established affiliate network.  But stings if you are caught up in it! If you are interested in participating in a stand-alone affiliate program, make sure it is from a reputable company – probably from a bricks and mortar business that is also online.

How do you get paid when you are involved in an affiliate marketing program?

Basically, you get paid when a person visiting your site clicks on a link or advertisement that takes them to the vendor’s website and that person makes a purchase. The commissions are variable – hard goods such as sporting equipment usually pay around 5% of the sales price; digital products (ebooks, software, etc.) pay up to 75% of the final sales price.  Payment is handled by the vendor if it is a stand alone affiliate program (Example: Amazon) or through the affiliate network (Example: ClickBank). 

When do you get paid by the vendor?

Depending upon the affiliate marketing program that you join, payments are sent to you at a pre-determined interval – the usual time period is monthly. It is also important to note that there is always a minimum payment threshold that you have to cross before being paid – the average is around $100 in commissions. The affiliate marketing program or affiliate network does this so that it doesn’t have to mail out tens of thousands of checks for $2.99! Let’s say you made the $100 threshold and are ready to receive the cash. You have to check with the affiliate program to see how payment is made. Some affiliate networks mail out checks while others have the ability to electronically transfer the payment to you. PayPal is used for this by some affiliate marketing programs.

So what affiliate programs are out there and how can you make money online from them? Great question! The short answer is: everything under the sun is available! If you want to sell pancake batter recipes I’m sure there is an affiliate program out there for it.

 The best affiliate programs to join:

ClickBank

SiteBuildIt

HostGator

Commission Junction

Google Affiliate Network

LinkShare

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