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You have a good website, perhaps about a niche area that you specialize in or about a passionate hobby of yours. Your readers love your articles. Your homepage is widely book marked and your newsletter has membership in thousands. Great!

Have you monetized your traffic? Have you signed up for Affiliate Programs?

"Affiliate programs? Hmm, What are those?" A good friend of mine who is passionate about cameras and has a blog with good readership exclaimed. What a waste of valuable traffic!

What is Affiliate Program? - A Definition

Affiliate program is a partnership between the merchants such as Amazon, eBay, Best Buy, Circuit City etc. and you, the publisher who places links to these merchant sites strategically on your websites and drive additional traffic to the merchant websites.

Terminology

Pay Per Click: Merchant offers money every time a visitor sent from your website visits merchant's website.

Pay Per Sale: Merchant offers money every time a visitor sent from your website actually buys the product offered by the merchant.

Pay Per Lead: Merchant offers money every time a visitor sent from your site provides some information to the merchant like his/her email id or fills a form. Essentially, Merchant is getting leads to sell his stuff.

Choosing the right affiliate programs for your site?

First and foremost, it is important to understand that the chances of your visitors clicking on your affiliate links, if the topic is relevant to them, which means your website/page and the affiliate links published should be closely related.

Of course they should offer reliable mechanisms to track: the traffic sent by you, your commissions you earned etc.

In addition to payout that is attractive, I would prefer those that offer good support, those who care for their affiliates. I should be able to get in touch with easily and get responses quickly, if situation demands.

A program that offers cookie duration so that even if your visitor visits a merchant today and purchases a month later, you would still get your commission, would be attractive to me.

Multi-tier programs and programs that offer residual income can also be attractive.

If your topic is regional, you have to make sure that the affiliate program(s) chosen cater to that region.

What's the best way to find Affiliate Programs for your site?

There are tons of Affiliate Programs out there offering from very attractive to so-so commissions. Which one to pick?

Your time is rather valuable to be checking out each of these merchant websites, making notes etc.
I find Affiliate Directories more useful, with their classification of programs, payout details and more importantly review etc., all available in one place.

You can pick the best affiliate suited for your niche much easily at a directory than on your own. Affiliate Directories help you spend more time concentrating on making your content more useful to your readers.

A few Tips for Success with Affiliate Programs

It is becoming increasingly clear these days that text links are much more successful that banners. A personal endorsement, for a targeted affiliate program with useful informative facts could help tremendously in encouraging the visitors to check out the merchants you promote.

Why do so many affiliates fail in affiliate marketing?

Fundamental and obvious reason for failure is that you are promoting stuff that is not relevant to your visitors.

Lack of conviction: Affiliate program is not just about putting a link. Get involved with a product and try it out if possible. Personal honest reviews help promote the stuff better. Only hard work pays.

If your pages designed with the sole purpose of acting as a commission-earning middleman, beware; search engines can throw your site out. Make sure that you are not a thin affiliate (a website with just affiliate links and banners, but no useful content).

Some fly by night operators take advantage of the minimum payout limits. Be sure to check the credibility of the affiliate program you are joining.

In summary, monetize your website. Let your passion bring in some revenue for yourself. Choose the Right Affiliate Program by browsing Affiliate Directories. Put some effort, get involved with the product you are promoting and increase your revenue.