If we want to start affiliate program, we have to find the best affiliate program in internet. There is so many affiliate program in internet and some of them is worse or spam affiliate program. There are some basic things we need to look out for before joining any affiliate program. Some of them may seem minor but those little petty things can cause we to lose hundreds of dollars in affiliate revenue.
Here are some of the basic things to watch out for when joining an affiliate program:
- No Affiliate Manager Contact Information
If they don’t provide we with a way to contact them about their affiliate program then what are we going to do if we have a problem? Who are we going to email or call if our check doesn’t arrive?
Do we really want to spend time on an affiliate program that pays a measely 2%? I see these programs all over. They pitch their affiliate program and make it sound like it is a privelidge to join their affiliate program and earn pennies per sale. I usually stay away from programs that offer less than 8% commission. I will go a little lower if the products sell good and there is a good profit.
- Unreasonable Cookie Length
Make sure we find this in their terms or information pages. This is the amount of time that the customer that clicks through our link remains ours. The standard cookie length is 30 days. This means that if our visitor clicks our affiliate link then they have 30 days to buy for we to get credit. We really don’t want to promote an affiliate program that offers less than a 30 day cookie length.
- Merchant Site Has Traffic Leaks
Probably the most common thing I see with affiliate programs. Mostly from newbie merchants that just got their affiliate program started. Most don’t realize what they are doing and usually will correct the problem once I explain to them how traffic leaks are hurting their business and their affiliate program. Traffic leaks are links on the affiliate program site that potential customers can click on and go to other sites… sites that the affiliate won’t get credit for if the visitor buys something. Leaks can consist of third-party banner ads, Google AdSense ads, popups, popunders, text links, etc…
With the internet market growing so rapidly every year this means more customers are shopping online. Alot of them will call the merchants 800 number to call in their order instead of submitting it online. Where does this leave we? The merchant gets the cash on the sale while we get stiffed. So when evaluating an affiliate program be sure to check to see if the merchant has measures set up to track phone orders for affiliates. It is simple to set up and it puts the affiliates ID number next to the phone number. So when customers call in they are asked for that number so they can manually credit the appropriate affiliate for the sale.
