Building An Affiliate Income - Picking Profitable Affiliate Programs
by Kevin Bidwell

It's a great feeling to open your mail and see a check there
for $ 500 or more. It's an even greater feeling to get two or 
three!

While there are hordes of affiliates out there who never make a 
sale or get a check, there are a few of us who get checks every 
month, all year long. No matter what kind of site you have, you 
want to be one of those people. 

There are several steps to building an effective affiliate 
income:

1.  Identify a workable market niche.
2.  Locate solid affiliate programs to offer that niche.
3.  Build a site and newsletter with high-quality
    information tied to that niche.
4.  Get your targeted visitors to the site and signed up for
    your newsletter.
5.  Send your visitors with open and receptive minds to the
    affiliate sites you represent, ready to buy.

In this article I will look at the second step: Locating
affiliate programs that will make you the long-term money
you want and need.

There are a number of places you can look for affiliate
programs. Here are a few I use:

Our Own Search Engine of Affiliate Programs

http://all-in-one-business.com/programs

Our New Programs Mailer (this focuses on new two-tier 
affiliate programs):

http://all-in-one-business.com/newpro

Allan Gardyne's Associate Program Directory

http://AssociatePrograms.com

Here is how you can identify a program that will make you a
good income over the coming months and years:

1.  MAKE SURE IT IS TARGETED TO YOUR NICHE

If your niche is radio controlled car racing enthusiasts,
you don't want to offer them internet marketing courses.
Instead, you will want to offer them products related to RC
racing.

2.  DETERMINE IF THE COMMISSION IS SUFFICIENT

Sending an email to your list doesn't cost you anything,
right?

WRONG!  Here's why...

Every time you send out an email about one product, you are
giving up the opportunity to send out a recommendation on
some other product. This is called opportunity cost.

I do a product recommendation to my list about once per
month. I know that the average return per subscriber for
each of those mailers is around 10 to 20 cents per subscriber.

If I choose to recommend a product to my list and the commission 
is too low, I may make only 2 cents per subscriber.

So, that mailer "cost" me 8 cents per subscriber. That is a
HUGE amount of wasted opportunity.

The commission offered on your product needs to be enough to
justify your cost in advertising the product. 40-50% of a
digital product and 30-40% for a "hard good" is probably
reasonable. If someone is trying to give you less than this
you most likely need to walk away.

Of course, re-curing commissions have a few other variables
to consider.

3.  MAKE SURE THE PAGE HAS A SOLID SALES PROCESS

Before you recommend a product--even if you truly believe in
the product--make sure you take a close look at the sales
process. Is the sales page readable? Compelling? If not,
don't send people to the page--they aren't going to buy.

4.  CHECK OUT THE PRODUCT YOURSELF

DON'T RECOMMEND A PRODUCT YOU HAVEN'T AT LEAST *EXAMINED*
YOURSELF! Recommending products you have not looked at is
like Russian roulette--you might get by with it for a couple
spins, but eventually it will shoot you in the head.

A well-known marketer recommended an ebook he had not read
himself. He had read the first version, but not volume 2.
Later, when it became obvious the product was pretty much a
waste of money, the "guru's" recommendation--sent to his 
list--now appeared as a testimonial at the sales site.

It hurt this guru's credibility and his own ability to make
sales.

5.  MAKE SURE SOLID TRACKING IS IN PLACE

You should be able to see how many visitors you have sent to
the affiliate site, how many purchased and how much sales
commission you have earned. This is a bare minimum.

Following these five recommendations will go a long way 
toward getting you nice commission checks week after week.


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Kevin Bidwell is owner of http://www.all-in-one-business.com
Kevin just finished a complete report on building a passive 
income. Grab your copy here:
http://www.All-In-One-Business.com/passive
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