As part of your overall strategy to make money with the articles that you post on your websites, submit to blogs and article banks as well as on your sites, you will also need a variety of good affiliate links that will help to generate revenue. It is important that you know where to find affiliates and that you choose the best affiliates for you, your articles and your niche websites.



When you pick an affiliate program to associate with, it is important that you determine which companies will provide the best profit numbers based on the frequency that the product is likely to sell. In that way you will select not only the ones that offer good, profitable products, but also the ones that fit your strategy, and business goals.

There are several types of affiliates programs available and some will offer you more money from per sale than other. Before you get overexcited by dollar signs, remember that some products are bound to sell more than others. If you sell on product four times a year that gives you $100 per sale or sell a well known product 3 times a week at the rate of $10 per sale, then you better stay with the $10 per sale product as it will make much more money.

Often times large well known companies will offer a very small profit per sale because they are established and know that their product is likely to sell well. Small, less popular companies, on the other hand, need all of the promotion they can get. Also, because they are unknown, their products are likely to sell less frequently. Something I personally do when looking for affiliate of certain product is to look at their payment schedule as you want to know what the payment threshold is and if you can choose at what level of revenue you get paid.

The most important and basic rule when picking affiliates to promote on your site is to pick products that would be of interest to those who would likely visit your niche site. Otherwise you will be promoting a product to a group of people who do not even want nor need it. Although this may sound trivial, I have seen countless times webmasters going the other way. If your niche site targets parents of young children, then promote baby products. If you niche site targets gardeners, then promote gardening products. If you promote baby products to gardeners, you are almost guaranteed to not make a profit no matter how much money the company offers for a sale.

Lastly, there are two main ways to find an affiliate company for your niche website. You can sign up with a company that manages the accounts of hundreds of companies, big and small, and apply for the products within these accounts or you can do a web search for companies that would match well with your niche, visit their websites, and see if they advertise an affiliate program. Examples of the first scenario are companies such as Commission Junction, Linkshare and LinkConnector, to name a few. On the second scenario are good companies such as Amazon and eBay, for example. On this subject, no scenario is better than the other, but in the case of large affiliate companies, it provides useful tools such as profitability reports of the affiliate programs, something that allow you to better select the affiliate programs to associate with.

Careful selection of the affiliate programs you will be associated to and promoting in your articles and niche websites is one of the more important steps in your overall plan as it will be crucial in the profitability of your internet business and, as such, should not be taken lightly.