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The best benefit of affiliate programs is that when you are just starting out in your own home based business you don’t have to worry about having your own product or service. You just promote someone else’s and get a share of the revenue pie for your efforts.

Also you don’t have to deal with warehousing, transport or logistics headaches. All of this is handled by the business whose products or services you are promoting. All you need to do is concentrate on driving traffic to that business’s website. This means that a high proportion of your income is profit.

The owner of the product or service is also responsible for collecting payment, customer service and the numerous other details that come up on a day to day basis in operation of the business.

The main and evident disadvantage of affiliate programs is that it is the owner of the product or service who earns the most of the profit on the sales.

You’re working on commission. You will NEVER earn by way of affiliate program commissions as much as you can earn by way of profits from producing and selling your own product or business opportunity.

As a result, affiliate programs represent a high opportunity cost when you consider what you could earn if you instead channeled the time and energy you spend on promoting affiliate programs into creating and promoting your own creation.

Instead, think of them as a way of dipping your toe in the water when you’re first getting started and a nice little sideline once you’ve created your own product or service. Do NOT build your business around affiliate programs with the intention this will always be the backbone of your business. You’ll be stunting your own growth if you do.

So, keeping in mind what affiliate programs can and can’t do for your business, let’s turn to what you should look for when choosing an affiliate program to promote in your home based business. Select programs that naturally complement the subject matter of your site and that will therefore be of interest and relevance to your site visitors. This will ensure your prospects are pre-qualified which will result in a relatively higher conversion ratio of visitors to customers than would be the case if your traffic is untargeted (which will be the case if you promote site-unrelated products and services.)

Look for quality programs first and foremost. The last thing you want to waste your time, money and reputation on is a shoddy product or service. There are just too many quality programs out there to settle for anything less. Look for a company that’s been around for a while and that’s reputable and stable (both financially and in its management). Any reputable company will have full contact details readily available so do your research.

Look for a professional, considered and detailed affiliate agreement (contract). This shows that the company is serious about its business. Check for exclusivity clauses and other restraints. Some affiliate agreements will require that you not promote competing businesses’ products and services. This is not to say you should avoid such agreements. As a general rule, it is your interests not to promote competing programs anyway. Just be aware of what the agreement says on the subject to avoid getting yourself into trouble.

Promoting someone else’s affiliate program necessarily requires that you divert traffic away from your site and towards someone else’s. Make sure you’re properly compensated with a high commission structure. Also, look for affiliate programs that will credit you with not only THIS sale but all other sales the customer may make in the future. Many programs are set up so that the customer is identified as “yours” so that when the customer returns to the target site in three months time, the sale is recorded as having been generated by you. Look for programs that allow you real-time access to your stats so you can keep easy track of your commissions.

Find out what the business’s record is on paying out commissions. If they’re slow or there appears to be a pattern of problems, move on. Make a note of payment schedules too. Some programs pay weekly, some monthly, some quarterly. Some only pay once you accumulate commissions of a certain amount. None of these arrangements are necessarily good or bad. Just be sure you know what to expect.

Finally, take a good look at what support the business offers its affiliates to make sales. Do they provide the necessary resources to promote, such as sample ads, banners, logos and the like? Do they provide useful advice about maximizing your sales? A good affiliate program provides affiliates with lots of support in these areas. I work with a team that provides support in all of these areas and so much more. With us you are never left hanging not knowing where to turn. With round the clock support help for your home based business opportunity is just a click away.

Marg Roukens

202-657-5874

SKYPE: Skype Me

Tri Power Team