Affiliate Program Checklist

Affiliate and other cooperative programs are announced almost
daily. Website owners are flocking to these programs. Enthusiasm
is high. But.........why not compare and evaluate first?

The following checklist was prepared from the point of view of one
seeking a program to affiliatae with. But it can also help a program
initiator compare current programs in order to make his better.

A. Does the Program Offer a Strategic Fit to Your Business?

1. PROGRAM PURPOSE - Define in broad terms
2. COMPLEMENTS YOUR PURPOSE - Does it help you better
realize your website long-range goals?
3. VISITOR LEARNING - Are your visitors interested and will
the
program help them learn?

B. Do You Trust the Business Initiating the Program?

4. SUCCESS - Does the business have a history of successes?
5. BELIEVABLE ADVERTISING - Does it promise impossible
rewards: get-rich-quick and MLM schemes? Or is it honest and
realistic?
6. REPUTATION - What does the business literature tell you about
their past operations?
7. WHAT CLIENTS SAY - Contact current clients and ask for
their opinions. Would they recommend this business
organization? Are they benefiting from it?

C. Is the Program Well Designed?

8. AFFILIATE QUALIFICATIONS - Are they signing up
everyone? Or are they being picky? Picky is better.
9. AFFILIATE RESPONSIBILITIES - Better, too, if there are
specific responsibilities. Are affiliates asked to do
promotion, communication with customers, sales?
10. INITIATOR RESPONSIBILITIES - Does the outfit offer help
in promotion, sales and after-sales support?
11. PAYMENT & TERMS - Is there a fee or commission
structure? How frequently are payments made? Does affiliate
get credit for future sales?
12. TRANSACTION TRANSPARENCY - How frequently are
transaction reports made? Are transactions independently
checkable by the affiliate? Is there a third-party audit?
13. CONFLICT RESOLUTION - Is there a SIMPLE method for
resolving conflicts?
14. RETURN TO SITE - Is there a simple way for a website
visitor to return to the site of the affiliate after a
transaction is executed?

D. Will You be Part of a Community?

15. COMMUNICATION MEDIUM - Does the program have a
newsletter, a mailing list, a forum, or some other means of
communicating among all affiliates?
16. AFFILIATE DECISION-MAKING - Does each affiliate have
a voice in making decisions that affect all affiliates?
17. MUTUAL PROBLEM SOLVING - Is there a method whereby
affiliates can pose problems and have them solved by the
affiliate community?- - - - - - - - - - - -

Be extremely careful when evaluating an affiliate program. Most
people dwell on the financial arrangements. These are important, of
course. But more important, I believe, are efforts made to achieve
community. These efforts may bolster your ability to achieve
greater financial goals.

Spend time in evaluation. It will pay off in the long run.


Live your vision

8 Reasons why Affiliate Programs are the better option

Many people are confused when they first become iterested in


internet businesses, they find themselves asking

what type of busisness is best for me?

Well I can't answer this for you but I can certainly give you
a few pointers in the right direction and my personal opinion.
So here they are:

1. No emplyees. There is no need to employ people to do the
work for you.

2. Low costs. Most affiliate programs are free to join, you
don't have to buy the product to sell it. Some programs have
a upgrade option to make which makes your earninig capacity
somewhat larger.

3. No storage. The merchant is responsible for the storage of
product so you don't need to worry about space or storage costs

4. No shipping and handling. The merchant is also responsible
for the product arrival, so there's also another cost you don't
need to worry about and running around you won't have to do.

5. You don't deal with customer service. Another problem you
don't need is customers who are not happy, if they are not
happy the merchant deals with it.

6. No account keeping. There is no need to store customer
information such as credit card details, addresses and phone
numbers, this is yet another merchant responsibility.

7. No trading time for a wage. You can spend as little or as
much time as you like selling your product. How much money you
want to make is entirely up to you.

8. There are literally thousands of options out there for you.
If you have a favourite niche market go for it, in my experience
if it is a product that you are really happy with then it will
be easy to sell.

If this doesn't clear things up for you, I don't know what will!
What better way to make money online then to watch the company do
all the hard work. All you have to do is promote, promote, promote,
and when it is something you are happy with it's easy!