There are like hundreds of thousands of affiliate programs out there on the web for anyone with at least some experience in marketing, are open to promote and make money from. Ranging from tens of thousands of individual affiliate programs to larger affiliate networks like CJ and Clickbank, there are essentially an endless amount of  products you can pick and choose from to make money online. Products on weight loss, games, money making, fashion & the list goes on and on. Although indeed becoming part of an affiliate program does require some celebration, picking the best product to promote that converts is another thing.
When joining any large affiliate network like Commision Junction (CJ), you must first do research or else you will be blindly walking through a never ending tunnel condemned from the outside world. Research is key in any affiliate offer to analyze what affiliate programs have the potential to convert and make big money. In order to make the most out of your affiliate campaign, you must follow this step-by-step process to ensure an affiliate program is worthy of being promoted.
Step 1: Look at how much is being paid
This step is pretty much self explanatory.
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(A good tip is if you want to find out the top leading affiliate offers in your market is to check up on the top leading competitors on top search engines like Google or Yahoo and try the same affiliate offer. If it works out great, if not no worries, the search for the best affiliate product to promote is still on)
Joining performance incentive programs are great to try too.
Step 2: Look if the product is saturated with other marketers already
A good way to tell if a product is saturated with other marketers is by searching it up on Google and seeing if the top leading competitors are promoting the same product. If not, it can mean either one of these two things: the product you are currently looking at pays less or their product they are promoting is converting more, OR they just never came across the product you are currently interested in promoting.
Generally the more competitors in the search engine for the product you are trying to promote, the harder it is to grab sales. That is why using Google to estimate how many competitors there are by using your main product’s primary keyword in quotations, (“keyword”) before you dedicate your heart and soul, is necessary to save time and approximate if it is going to be a worthwhile task to promote.
Step 3: Look at the landing page
Look to see if the product on the affiliate merchant’s site is relevant to your community (website, group, etc) and evaluate the entire web design. If it is worthy of promoting, move onto the next important step.
Step 4: Look at how the commissions are being paid
Look and see if the affiliate program’s payment method is being paid by every sale, lead, impression, or click. And then evaluate if the product is even worth promoting from there.
(If it is not, start over at step 1 until you discover a product worth promoting)
Step 5: Look at what is REQUIRED to generate commisions
If you are dealing with leads, look for the following: how many forms must be filled in order to be counted as a lead. Generally, the least forms for a new visitor to input, the better conversions. Free trials offers generally work too, however the downfall is that it requires much more effort in presenting the product to make free trial offers worthwhile.
If you are dealing with sales, look for the following: how many pages is necessary to get to the buying page. (If the product page ends up to be too long or too short that it wouldn’t even convince you to buy their product, start over at step 1. This is necessary to finding the best affiliate sales product to promote.)
Step 6: Look and see if they have any promotional banners (optional)
Promotional banners are great to entice new visitors to visit your advertiser’s page for you to possibly make new conversions just like that. If your advertiser has banners, this is a bonus that can help boost up your conversions. Just make sure that the banners looks professional and gives new visitors a direct message about what your advertiser’s page is going to be about. If  the banners are unprofessional and awful to the eyes, it can do more harm than good to your conversions.
Step 7: Look at user reviews
If you made it to step 7, I’m glad that you made it this far. However, if you have the slightest thought that the affiliate program you are currently enrolled with is too good to be true, it doesn’t hurt to be safe and look at reviews. Not to shatter your dreams but this step is necessary for your own good.
(If you found out that the affiliate program you were interested in were no good, sorry to burst your bubble but you have to start over at step 1. At least it is better to know the truth now when they owe you nothing than never.)
Step 8: Buy the product and experience it first hand (optional)
Although not every affiliate marketer has the luxury to buy every affiliate product they promote, if you can and strongly feel good about an offer you are currently promoting, why not buy the product and experience it first hand. This is great to talk further in depth about the products you are promoting to your readers, which can in turn, lead to more higher conversions.
