Finding The Best Affiliate Programs

When I first began searching and implementing affiliations with various companies; it was one of the biggest time suckers in maintaining my site. I spent countless hours searching for suitable affiliate programs, implementing the links and then monitoring their activity. It is definitely not a get rich quick scenario. The income generated from each program was relatively low, as at that time the number of visitors to my site was not high. It was not uncommon for companies to disappear without notice and since most affiliate programs only pay out at around the $50 mark, I would lose the revenue.

The other aspect that I was not happy with was the idea of another companies banners littering my site, if you implement too many on any given page it only serves to confuse and irritate your visitors. Any more than one animated element on a web page can be very distracting.

Affiliate tracking was also a problem. After you have successfully applied to become an affiliate for a company, they will usually supply you with some personalized code or link. It is very important that this code is implemented correctly into your page, otherwise you may be sending the company visitors without being reimbursed. Most snippets of code contain a unique user id; which is used by the company to distinguish which site sent traffic. Even if you do implement this code properly, it has been my experience on occasion for it not to function correctly.

All things considered, I wouldn’t recommend the “hunt and peck” method for finding a good affiliate program. Your time is too valuable and could be better spent creating content and updating your site. But there are some excellent individual companies offering affiliate programs out there.