Deciding on the best affiliate marketing program to promote can sometimes be a challenge. Many new affiliate marketers tend to sign up for as many programs as they can in hopes that the more programs they promote, the more money they'll get. This is not always true. Since the choices you make when choosing affiliate products is critical to your success, you need to do your homework before choosing affiliate programs. Here are some things to keep in mind.

You should choose affiliate products that match the topic of your website. And, your website should be on a topic that you are an expert on or that you are very interested in. If you are choosing products that you know nothing about you won't know the best ways to pre-sell them. This, of course, will affect your bottom line. You'll also lose your motivation in promoting the product and it will just sit there without any payoff.

The affiliate program must be of good quality. Make sure that the product owner is reliable and has an effective sales process in place. Read the sales letter. Does it make YOU want to purchase the item? If it does, that's a good indication that others will want to buy it as well. Email or contact the support desk to see how quickly you get an answer. You should receive an answer within a couple days; if you don't, it could mean that the company is not reliable. Remember: your trustworthiness is on the line when you select an affiliate program.

Do some research on the programs you are planning to promote. Are people already buying this product? If the product is "hot," you won't have to put as much effort into selling it as you would a product that people aren't interested in. The market demand must be good enough to sustain the interest of the buyers.

Choose affiliate marketing programs that pay high commissions. Your goal as an affiliate marketer is to make money so choose the higher paying programs to help you meat that goal. It generally takes the same amount of effort to promote a high paying program as it does for a low paying product. Make your promotion efforts count by choosing the programs that will pay you the most. If you are promoting Internet marketing products, the best commission rate runs between 50 to 75 percent. Other niches will usually run a bit less. Some "affiliate stores" have a much lower commission rate but the products themselves are priced quite high.

The affiliate product should have a high conversion rate. Some companies publish this information right on their website. If they don't, you can contact them and ask them what their sales conversions are or you can join the affiliate program, start your promotion efforts and track the sales yourself. If you their sales page isn't performing, it could be time to change products. Be sure that you are targeting the market that the product is for when doing your testing.

The affiliate program that you are considering must have a good support system in place. There should be contact information available on their website, either in the form of a help desk, email and/or a telephone number that you can call. Look for those companies that provide sales materials. They know their product better than you do so should have ads that you can rewrite in your own words. Companies that provide affiliate training are also among those that are the best affiliate programs to look for.

Do you have time to devote to another affiliate program? If you are already promoting a ton of affiliate programs, adding another one to your list may not be a good idea. You aren't going to make any money by adding another product to those that you already have if you don't have the time to promote it.

Don't forget to read the Affiliate Agreement. There are sometimes unexpected surprises as to when - and if - you will be paid. Some companies can have a specified number of sales that you must meet before you get paid for any commissions you may have made.