Finding Profitable Affiliate

Opportunities

It's impossible for me to overemphasize the importance of finding and selecting good
merchants. As an affiliate your job is to pre-sell a merchant's products or services. No
matter how good your marketing is the merchant still has to close the deal.
I've met several experienced affiliate marketers who seem to be doing everything right,
but are unable to be profitable when promoting certain merchants.
In addition to selecting the best merchants for your website, you need to make sure that
you are promoting the merchant's best converting products and services. There's no
substitute for experience, but using some due diligence may help you filter out some
poor converting products, services, and merchants in advance.

What Interests You?

The easiest way to make money in affiliate marketing is by promoting products and
services that interest you. You can make money in categories that you know nothing
about, but it's always easiest to get started by promoting things you have an interest in.
For example, when I started in affiliate marketing I promoted online dating services.
Before I began working as an affiliate, I owned and operated an online dating site.
Because I was interested in online dating, and had a little experience running my own
dating site, it was easy for me to promote other dating services. My previous experiences
in online dating helped me to understand who the customers were, and what they were
looking for.

No matter what your interests are, I can assure you that there is an affiliate program that
caters to you. I went out to lunch with a friend of mine one time and he asked me what he
should promote. I asked him what he liked doing in his spare time. He mentioned that he
was really into playing video games. I suggested that he could create a gaming website
with video game reviews and strategies for his favorite games. He could feature
advertisers that sell video games like Amazon.com and WalMart.com on his site. After
just a few short months he was pulling in over a thousand dollars a month from his hobby
site.

Trying to promote products you don’t have a genuine interest in is a recipe for failure.
Too often new affiliates will ask me what products and services make the most money,
which is the wrong question to ask. If you don’t have passion and dedication your site
will go nowhere.

I’ve fallen into this trap a few times myself. In the past I would get a call from a merchant
telling me how much money I could make as one of their affiliates. I would spend the
next week building a site, doing keyword research, and launching campaigns only to be
disappointed by the results. If I had more interest in their products and services I may
have been able to figure out a way to make it work, but because I lacked passion my
campaigns fizzled. In the end, I wasted a lot of time and money. I promised myself from
that point on I would only promote products and services I was interested in.


Real Life Example:

You don't have to be an expert in your category. Simply having an interest or a desire to
learn more about something is enough. For example, I didn't know anything about Voice
over Internet (VOIP) a few months ago, but I was interested in learning more. So I spent
a few hours checking out different Voice over Internet providers, comparing features, and
trying to understand the benefits of using Voice over Internet instead of a traditional
phone line.
I even took it one step further and decided to try it out for myself. By becoming a Voice
over Internet customer, I really started to understand what the buzz was about. It was then
very easy for me to create a website and start promoting merchants in this category.
It's not necessary to buy or use every product or service you want to promote. If that were
the case, I would have dozens of credit cards in my wallet. However, it is important that
you understand the key benefits of each product so you are able to accurately and
effectively market the product.
Action Item:
If you haven’t yet decided what you’re going to promote take a few minutes to write
down some ideas:
What are your hobbies?
What are you passionate about?
Do you use a particular product or service that you’re always raving about to your friends
and family?
Do you belong to any clubs, have professional affiliates, or participate in any
communities? What products and services do you need to engage in these activities?
What products and services do you use that you might recommend to others? Write
down any products or brands that you use in your own life. You can categorize them by
home, personal, and work.
Have you recently searched for something online, but couldn’t find good information or
reviews about a product or service?