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Marketing and promoting products have completely changed since the introduction of the Internet. Like Pandora's Box, the Internet has offered multitudes of new avenues for expressing oneself, gaining vast information, promoting services and products, and even incurring huge sums of money. The beauty of the World Wide Web is that businesses, both budding and centuries-old, have equal access to resources and exposure. Moreover, the Internet, unlike traditional marketing media (newspaper, television, etc) is more affordable and is far reaching.

For people who have personal or company websites, a good way to capitalize on this new wave of online advertising is through affiliate marketing. Basically, this marketing style mimics a symbiotic relationship. A person who has a website can help an online business by drawing the visitors of his or her website to the site of the said online store. In return, the web-based business will give the person commission or reward for every actual sale made by the visitors that the person led to the store's website. In short, the person acts as a marketing agent of the online business.

Affiliate marketing is now a buzz word on the Internet arena; thus, it will not be very difficult for you to find an affiliate program. However, just like in any industry, there are also many unscrupulous people and companies that are lurking on the cyber world. These Internet predators will try to lure you to parasitic affiliate programs, which is only beneficial to them but not to you.

If you want to try affiliate marketing, be sure to read the tips below so that you will not only find the best affiliate program that will suit you, but also veer away from unhealthy business relationship with fraudulent and misleading entities.

It pays to research before entering a particular affiliate program

One way to prevent being tricked by unscrupulous companies and individuals is to do some research on the company and the product of the website you want to affiliate with. It would be advisable to check the background of the owners of the website too. If an online store conceals the identity of its owners, be a little wary.

Another important thing you need to look for is charges because there are some that require fees. Since there are many affiliate programs that are free, then maybe you should check them out first before you consider the ones that asks you for monthly or yearly charges.

Lastly, so that you would have credibility, it would be advisable to try and buy the product that the online store you want to affiliate with is selling. At least, you would know if the services and goods of this particular company is competitive and of high quality. This is very important if you value your name and reputation highly.

Figures and statistics must be readily available to you

A vital figure that you should look into is the website's conversion ratio. This is important because you want to know the number of people you need to bring to the website before an actual sale is realized. Usually, you only get commission on consumed sales. If the ratio is 1 sale per 100,000 visitors, then you might want to find another affiliate program.

Moreover, you want to deal with websites that can easily and speedily provide you with the information you need. How would you be able to track you commissions if the website you are going to affiliate with does not have a tracking system?

Have a clear understanding of the merchant's terms

You need to read the terms over and over again. Some people just skim through the terms so they do not realize that the affiliate program that they are entering is one-sided and do not provide any benefit to them at all. Thus, read carefully and if you don't understand, ask for clarifications. There are many merchants that put really tricky clauses so watch out.

When it comes to commissions, think in terms of money

The main reason why people join affiliate programs is profit. Therefore, a program that gives the best commission and payment scheme in terms of actual money is what you are looking for.
Merchants give commissions ranging from 10% to 75%. At first glance you might be excited to get the one that provides the 75% commission. However, you should also consider the monetary value. A 10% commission on a $500-worth product is higher than a 75% commission for a product sold at $10.

Aside from monetary value, you should also look at conversion ratios. Considering the example above, you might want to choose the one that gives 75% commission if its conversion ratio is 25 for every 100 visitors over the one that gives 10% commission if its conversion ratio is one for every 5,000 visitors.

Also, you might want to look at the payment scheme. If the payment is given annually, you might want to look for others who pay affiliates twice a month or even weekly.