In my last article, I started to discuss some the things to watch out for when you are looking for a good affiliate program. The Internet is a very vast land. There are billions of pages out there. Millions and millions of them are on the topic of making money. You need to be very careful out there. I know many people, myself included that have fallen for one scam or another. Here are some more things that I, after years of marketing, look out for. The program should have a good reputation. You don't want to start off every sales pitch by defending the opportunity. You want to start off on a high note. I understand that it may be hard to find out the reputation of a very new program. When you are first starting out, go with an established program. Learn the ropes. Then you will be able to pick out a good "ground floor" opportunity when one comes along. They should provide free training and promotional materials. A good program will want to remain a good program. There are in it for the long haul. They want you to be in it long term too. It just makes them look better. They should give you basic training on how to market their product or opportunity. They should have someone you can contact for guidance. They should make promotional materials such as, banners, sample advertising, and links to advertising sites, etc. Peer support is always a sign of a good program. They might have a team forum or a chat room. You and your peers can learn from each other. Bounce ideas off of one another. See what works and what does not. A good team is so valuable to the success of a new internet marketer. If the sales page of a program tells you how much you will make in how much time, it's a lie. There are program out there that will say you will make X amount in so many months. No one can judge how much a person will make in an affiliate program. You could join the best affiliate program ever, and do nothing with it. It all depends on how much you are willing to put into it. It is a very overwhelming thing for a new Internet Marketer to get on line and look for their first program. You always think that this is the one that's going to make you rich. You dream of taking care of you family, going on vacations, the whole bit. The next thing you know you have over priced cleaning products under your sink, you're getting magazines that you never wanted, and you email inbox is filled with junk. There is a lot of deception out there. That's way they are called sales pages. The only job of a sales page is to sell you on a program, by any means it can. You will want to make a good name for yourself. Getting in with a bad program could hurt your credibility but a good affiliate program will keep earning you money for a long time to come. |