Affiliate Programs Guide-part1

What Are Affiliate Programs?

Welcome to the wide world of affiliate marketing!

Affiliate marketing (sometimes called referral marketing) is based business people.

So, what is an affiliate and what does he or she do?

The affiliate marketer acts as a “middle man” between merchant and consumer, but without adding anything to the consumer's cost.

Affiliates do not mark up or resell products.

Instead, the affiliate educates and directs the consumer to a product, and he receives a percentage of the sale in commission from the merchant.

The affiliate acts as an independent lead generator for the merchant by bringing in new customers.

This is a win-win situation for both the affiliate and the merchant.

The affiliate can reap a full-time income marketing a whole suite of products that he does not own. He doesn't pay for product creation, doesn't have to ship anything and doesn't deal with customer service issues or returns. The merchant benefits from the influx of new customers, the boatloads of cheap traffic and low cost advertising. Merchants get their product and their brand in front of thousands of potential buyers without paying a dime until someone makes a purchase.

It is truly a pay for performance arrangement.

Choosing The Right Program:

1. When and how do you get paid?
Find out whether the program pays you weekly, bi-monthly, monthly, etc. Most programs have a minimum payout amount, meaning that you don't receive your commissions until hitting a minimum number of sales for the pay period. You'll also want to find out whether the programs pays you via check, direct deposit, Pay Pal or any combination of the three. With our PushButtonHealthGuide.com, we are linked to clickbank.com, you will be rest assured that you will be paid accordingly twice a month.

2. How much do you make per sale?

Remember you'll be investing your own money into advertising and other expenses to promote these programs. Therefore, you should seek programs which reward their affiliates well. You'll also want to seek out high-value products. A fifty to sixty percent commission on a $100 product is very good, but it's not so hot if you're promoting a $15 product.

At the time of writing, we offer 75% of commission to our affiliate, which is the highest by the industry standard.

3. Is the program managed well? Is this a reputable company? Larger companies usually have “affiliate managers” devoted to maintaining contact with their affiliates. Even if you go with a smaller outfit, they should at least offer clear contact information. You might want to try e-mailing them at their contact address to see how fast they respond to you. Mismanaged programs are, at best, a sign of disorganization and, at worst, could indicate a company in trouble.

The last thing you want is to be sitting on a grand worth of hard earned commissions and see the merchant go out of business before paying you.

Keeping these factors in mind, here are some great places to seek out products you can promote:
www.clickbank.com
www.cj.com
www.linkshare.com

Commission Junction (CJ) and Linkshare provide affiliate hubs for major brand corporations and mid-sized businesses. Their focus is generally on tangible products and services. Clickbank is the leading source online for affiliates of information products like e-books, software and membership sites.