My Guideline for Good Affiliate Programs to sign up to.

[kotitihaere]

Kia ora all,

Here is my 10% worth of what I look for when I am looking for more affiliate programes to sign up to. Hopefully it will give those of you who are new to being affiliates some ideas of what to look for, and for those of you who run affiliate programs, some ideas of how an affiliate may view your site.

The headings with *** in them would not be what I would consider "compulsory" or they are specific things that I want / need for my sites.

The basic first look
Is the link to the Affiliate program (ap) easy to find?
Nothing is more annoying than finding a site in a search engine that has an ap then finding the link to it is a mission in searching!

Is all of the information about the ap readily available?
* payment threshold
* commision
* payment schedule
Some sites that I have come across in the past say "email us for information" - well I would not be on that page if I was not interested!

Are there good payment options?
* All of the NZ ap's that I belong to will pay straight into a NZ bank account - there are also several overseas ap's that also have this available
* If that is not available, my next preference is cheque then paypal (in that order)
* If the payment option is "earn credits for use in our shop" - forget it!

When sending an email is the reply prompt ?
All of the good affiliate programs that I belong to have really good reply times - no more than a day in the week and if a weekend, maybe on the Monday - although some reply within 24 hours even in a weekend

How flexible is the program? ***
While most affiliate programs (eg osCommerce or ZenCart) create links in a certain format, is there flexibility to change the links? ie: if the link is generated with images only, can the links be changed to be text links by the affiliate if they know how? Maybe another thing to think about, is if someone wanted to do that but did not know who to, could the site provide support to help the affiliate?

Regarding the site itself:
Is there a secure server or a gateway that has a secure system for payment?
I personally would not buy products from a site that does not have encrpytion for payments, so I would not send people to a site that does not have that.

How easy is it to find products?
As I have a niche market site, all I do is put in the keyword and see if there are products.
If there is, the next question is how relavant are the search results? One site that I looked at, when I typed Maori in the search box came back with a whole lot of cosmetics and on none of those pages was anything relating to, or mentioning Maori. If I can not find the products I need, how can others? I did contact the site about their irrelavant serach results and, being one of the good NZ ap sites, they did rectify it making the search results relavant to the keyword(s) used

Is the site easy to navigate?
I am quite web savy, so if I find it hard to get around the site, then I will not send people to it.

Is the site fast loading?
Ok, confession time, I have always, and still do, use only dialup! Now, my reasoning behind that is that 10% of my monthly visitors are still on dialup, and I do not like slow loading sites, so if I can personally experience the speed, then I can fix it. It is one thing to read (through various tests) that a site takes X time to load, but when you experience it, it is real! And while you may think that 10% is not much, that 10% equals 6000 visitors a month and that IS alot of people! I will not penalise 6000 people so I can have a slow loading site! *LOL*

Is there a flash intro with no opt out button?
Then forget it. If I can not get straight to the site I will not use it.

Do all of the products have images?
This is an interesting one. While most of the ap's I belong to have images for all products, I have noticed that not all products in Book Sites have images.
Which is a shame as I use images for my affiliate links and do not want to have a page of "Image Not Available" or the like and some of the good books are "No Image" books.
While I do not know the ins and outs of putting book covers in an ecommerce site, I have got around this problem for some of the books that I know will sell well, by going to the publisher site and getting the image off there. Then I can have the link with an image.

Do all of the products have descriptions? ***
The format that I use is to have the product title, image and description, so if a site does not have a product description, I do not use them.

Is the site designed to fit all browsers?
ok, confession time again - I have my screen set to 600 x 800 (I moved from 640 x 480 when no one with that setting was visiting my site anymore!) and my sites are designed to be viewed in any screen size resolution.
If I go to look at a site that has "this site is best viewed with screen size a x b - please adjust your screen" I would only consider signing up for that site if they had exceptional products. While I have found a few sites like that over the years, none have had products that I have considered worth signing up for.
To me as a webmaster it is a cheek to tell someone to change their browser and it reflects that the designer does not have the skills to cater for all people and all settings, instead they are trying to impose their settings on the user because of their limited skills *LOL*

Is there a full sitemap of all cateogries and sub categories? ***
Some sites have "Main Categories" (ie" Health and Beauty") and when you click there you will find sub cateogories (ie "Soaps")
As a person who has an affiliate program, it is easier for me to work out what I want to add by being able to scroll down a "full sitemap" of every category / sub category, rather than having to try and guess where things may be.
Also, by seeing a full sitemap, I will see something and think, "oh, what is in there?" and by clicking, may find products that I may not have thought about adding. I have often found other products from the sites that have the full lists that I would not have thought about. This in turn means I have more links and they get more sales - a win / win situation.

Is there a Maori category? ***
ok, as Maori is my niche market, and this is a NZ affiliate program site, I thought I may as well add this one in! Sites that have Maori sections for me make it easy to find the products that I can look at to see if I will add them

The backend - Affiliate Area
Can you view sales?
I will not use a site where I can not see sales! While some of you may think this is basic, I have recently come across a site that I signed up for, only to find that there is no where to see sales or anything else!

Can you view payment history?
I like to be able to see payments that have been made

Can you view clicks? ***
for me, this is not a "must have" but it is nice

Are there different banners and sizes available?
Sometimes I like to use a banner but because of my site designs, I need them in certain "standard" sizes. Nearly every ap that I belong to have a good range of banners and different sizes.

Can you make links for specific products?
Once I signed up to a site only to find out that I could only link to their front page. Needless to say I do not use them.

Do they explain how to create links to specific products?
Some sites have very clear instructions and some have hardly any at all. As a webmaster, I can figure it out, but if a person signs up for an ap and can not understand how to create links, both parties miss out on perspective customers.

Is there an easy to find "Contact Us" link in case you have any questions?
Most sites that I use have a "contact us" link from within the affiliate program which is nice.


Is it easy to change your details?
From time to time you may need to change your details, and this should be easy to do from the affiliate area.

Payouts - once you have joined
Are payments done automatically?
If the site says something like "payments are made on the 20th of the month following when the minimum payment threshhold is met" and you reach the minimum payment threshhold do you get your payment or do you have to ask?
I joined a few ap's when they were first starting out, so had to ask, but it ws ok as we were learning together. So just be aware if you join a new ap and the ap itself is new, you may need to give a gentle request for payment at first. But once things are sorted out, they usually automatically send out payments.

Do you get an email when a payment to you has been made? ***
When you get an ap payement, are you sent an email letting you know, or do you just look at your bank account one day and see a payment?
some programs I belong to will email to let me know and some pay monthly (as I meet the minimum payment threshhold monthly) and they just pay out without an email.

Can you negotiate a different payment schedule? ***
Some of the ap's I belong to I have an agreement with them that once I meet the minimum payment threshhold, I will ask for the payment when I want it. This is a personal thing, as I like to have some money tucked away for server costs etc and this way when I need it I can get it!

And one last comment....
How to find affiliate programs?
This in itself can be a mission! A site like this is a great resource as it lists lots of the good programs so use it and ask here as well.

The way that I have found most of the ones I use (as this site did not exist at the time I began looking) was to do a google search for Maori "affiliate program" written exactly as you see and then scroll through ALL the pages. The new ones I find are usually after (now) about page 15.

That's all for now folks!
Good luck!

[licklock]

Thank you for your post. For someone like me that's just starting out with affiliate marketing your post is even better than buying a book on affiliate marketing.

Not that I am against paying for information. I just believe that information should be shared generously just like you did here.

[affiliateprograms]

Welcome to the forums licklock, learning about affiliate marketing is all about research so it's a good idea to get in and ask a few questions as well.

There's plenty of experience around and most of us are looking to help build the community and understanding in NZ
_________________
NZ Affiliate Programs
gary@affiliateprograms.co.nz

www.affiliateprograms.co.nz

[William]

My name is William and just like the person whose comment I have just read, (posted late last year) I too am just startng out in affiliate marketing and so found your advice so very helpful.

I wish to be a part of this Forum, firstly because I need advice and suggestions on the subject and then, when I grow in experience, to contribute to the Forum in a helpful, constructive way.

Thanks again to everyone for such informative comments.

[kotitihaere]

Kia ora to those of you who have commented - it has inspired me to write a followup How to Choose Good Affiliate programs for your site

Good luck to you all!

[mBUCKS]

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Kind regards,

Scott, mBUCKS Support Team New Zealand