I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that there are many good affiliate programs out there. The bad news is that you will have a hard time identifying which are the best. Everyone has to decide for themselves which program they know and like enough to promote on a continuous basis. When it comes to the best affiliate programs for me, I have considered a couple of things. First, who is my target audience? (And I had to make sure it was not me, a trap that most people fall into). Since most people using the internet are females between 20 and 50 (I read this someplace not too long ago). I decided to pick them as my target market and design my site around them. My second consideration was what this group is buying on the internet. What I discovered was that they were shopping for all kinds of things on eBay, Amazon, and Overstock.com. Upon further research, I noticed that this group had a lot of stay at home moms who were interested in earning extra money for various reasons and were heavy into surveys, data entry, and typing jobs. I spread my research further using information that I gathered from search engines and other websites concentrating in this arena.
Here I saw a lot of duplication and not necessarily things that I would be comfortable with associating myself. I started to do some thinking on my own and reasoned that if most people use the internet for information, then maybe I should provide some information. So, I have an eBook on how to make money on the internet as a free offer on my website. I also set up a FREE Newsletter where I offer marketing tips on a continuous basis so that I can stay in touch with my customers. Looking at the web site with what I had up to this point, left some room for creative thinking. My thought was that if these ladies were going to work and shop on my site I should give them some things to shop that are not readily available in every neighborhood shopping strip or mall. So I picked the Playboy store and Fredericks of Hollywood as a special attraction.
The Dollar store, Golfsmith, and Entrepreneur Magazine were thrown in because of their brand value. And that is it. I know I have a site that I am very comfortable with and think it represents the best affiliate programs for my business. That may change tomorrow, but right now I am having a lot of fun with it. Your approach to finding the best affiliate programs may be different from mine, and that is fine. However, keep in mind that it is a business that you will be getting heavily involved in, so look for what will work best for your personality and your style. Affiliate programs are a great way to make money, especially if you do not have a product of your own. The majority of affiliate programs are free to join and you can get started with most of them within 24 hours. So what are you waiting for --- get busy and have fun!
