Everyday we are bombarded with all kinds of affiliate programmes promising heaven and earth and claiming to be your ultimate recipe for financial success. There are several ingenious marketers who are daily releasing programmes that appear to be the answer you need to embark on your journey to financial freedom. Often times, you are rudely shocked to realize that the programme you have joined is far from what you had expected and that your financial investments have gone down the drain.



Hence the need to ask questions. Let me repeat that it is absolutely necessary for you to ASK a ton of questions before you join any affiliate programme as it will save you avoidable heartache later. Take time to conduct some modest research about the features of the affiliate programme you are considering as you are going to be devoting time and financial resources on it.

Some of these questions shall include whether it will cost you anything to join. However, it is given that this will be free as most lucrative affiliate programmes that abound today cost you nothing to join. Therefore do not consider any programme that requires you to make some payment prior to joining.

Next point to consider will be the hit- per- sale ratio. In other words how many hits to a banner or text link will you have to record to record a sale? This is important because it will assist you to work out the traffic level that is required to generate a given desired number of sales. And of course it has a direct bearing on the amount of commissions that you qualify to be paid by the merchant.

Similarly, you will do well to find out when your earned commission checks will be ready for collection and how often you will be paid in a month. How many sales will you have to record to be entitled for a commission check? What is the minimum amount required for the commission check to be issued? Anyway, you have to choose the option that you feel is the most suitable to you.

The next question for which you must find an answer before you decide on any affiliate programme is the accuracy of the tracking system. How are referrals from an affiliate's site tracked? Will the tracking system remain long enough such that when ever a prospect that you refer decides to purchase several weeks later you will still be credited with that sale? You must therefore find a programme that has a good tracking system that has this capacity.

Another important parameter that you should also consider is the group of affiliate statistics that are available to you from the merchant processing system. Such statistics should be detailed covering all relevant indices and available online real time 24/7. This will assist you in determining and monitoring your progress or lack thereof. Naturally, you will be very much interested in the average daily hits, impressions, sales and the like as these data are important in deciding whether you should modify your ads, banners etc.

You can also, depending on the nature of the affiliate programme, find out whether you can also be paid for hits and impressions in addition to the sales recorded. This is particularly important where the programme you are associated with offers low sales ? to- hit ratio.

A very important consideration in choosing your affiliate programme is the percentage of commission that is paid out to the affiliates per sale. Considering the fact that it costs virtually the same effort and financial resources to promote your affiliate programmes you must insist on reasonably adequate commission payments. 50% appears to be the dominant practice these days but anything higher will be appreciated.

Similarly, is the affiliate programme a one-tier or two-tier programme? A one-tier affiliate programme pays you only for the sale that you personally generate while the two-tier programme pays you for the business generated by your sponsored affiliate.

Infact, some programmes even pay what could be termed recruitment fees in order to inspire affiliates to exert themselves in getting more sign-ups.

It is equally important to try and know your merchant better. Determine if they are a solid company and their basic line of business and their products. Your research should also assist you to determine their relative standing in that particular niche and how easy it would be for you to successfully market their product and make some money in the process.

All said, these are only some of the basic questions you must find answers to before you jump into any particular affiliate programme. They are by no means exhaustive but are only supposed to provide with the basic guidance you need before making your choice out of the cacophony of claims and promises that abound on the internet. Whatever the case, however, you must be ready to work your business to success like many have been able to achieve and are financially happier for it.