Affiliate marketing question - Should you join
every affiliate program you can find or just a
few?
There are many thousands of affiliate programs
on the net that you can join. Every man and his
dog is running one. But how do you decide
which ones to join?
There are two trains of thought in this area. First
you can take the scatter gun approach, which is
quite popular on the net, and join as many
programs as possible. This ensures that at least
SOME of them will pay off. Well, that's the
theory.
The other alternative is to take the shot gun
approach. Join some leading affiliate programs
in just a few areas and put more effort into each
one. Do some affiliate marketing research by
reading as many articles on the subject as
possible. This way you can narrow down your
candidates.
Well, as always there are pros and cons to both
but why not do what everyone else is not doing.
It seems to me most sites are taking the scatter
gun approach. For example: We have 3,000
affiliate programs listed on our site. We have
the largest selection of affiliate programs!
Why not focus? Find your own niche. Find a
particular area that you are interested in.
Example: Perhaps your interest is in selling rare
papyrus from Egypt and you find there is only
one affiliate program dedicated to this. You join.
You focus your affiliate marketing strategies on
this product. You are not thinking about selling
papyrus from Egypt one minute and then long
distance phone calls the next. With fewer
products and services you are able to focus more
energy and effort onto the products and services
that you have a genuine interest in. You may
even be considered an expert in this particular
area because of your knowledge.
There are many webmasters doing just fine with
their hundreds or even thousands of affiliate
programs, but the market for the scatter gun
approach now appears to be cluttered.
This is where the specialists enter. The new
breed of webmaster that focuses on particular
products or services. Alternatively your focus
may be on one area, and selecting only the best-
selling, highest-paying commissions for that
field. Then you target your affiliates with high
level affiliate marketing techniques. Now there
is room for the specialist to succeed.
Target your affiliate programs.
Pick just a few.
Concentrate all of your time into marketing
these programs - because you are so passionate
about the product or service you are selling, you
will drive more targeted traffic to your affiliate
program.
