Finding the right affiliate program can make or break your online business. A top-quality program can earn you a huge amount of money when combined with appropriate content on your website, but a poor program will only bring in pennies. The only sure way to find out which are best is to try them all, but finding them isn't always easy.
Not all companies advertise the fact that they have an affiliate program. There is a good reason for this: They don't want their customers joining the affiliate program simply as a way to get a discount on their purchases. This lack of advertising isn't a bad thing, it just make your job that little bit harder.
Here are the four most powerful ways to find a good affiliate program:
1) Find out who the big companies are that serve your particular niche. Then go to Google and do a search for,
Company Name "affiliate program"Repeat the search for each of the main players. This may sound obvious, but very few people ever actually try it, and it does get results!2) Equally obvious, and nearly as powerful: Think of a few products that are relevant to your niche. Now try searching for,
Product "affiliate program"Be careful not to limit yourself when choosing products. Do a quick brainstorming session and list everything a person interested in your niche will need. Once you've made the list as long as possible, look through it and pick out the best ideas.If you do not have success with these first two techniques, varying the search slightly can help. Try searching for "associate program" instead. Or use single words like affiliate, referral or commission. Don't waste too much time though, there are other methods to try as well.
3) Repeat the searches for company names and related products at each of the main affiliate networks. Commission Junction is where I usually start, followed by LinkShare
and ClickBank. Although this doesn't always help you locate anything new, it's still worth trying.
4) There's always eBay! In fact, eBay is usually my first choice these days. I've yet to find a niche that eBay don't have related products for, and the earnings are consistently good. AuctionAds have made it extremely easy to show relevant eBay products on your site, you just enter some appropriate keywords then copy and paste the code.
Testing is crucial. When you've found several good affiliate programs, give them all a fair trial on your site, and only keep the ones that earn most.