One of the best ways to monetize a website or blog is to set up an affiliate marketing partnership. Before establishing a partnership, you should research the market and find out what the different commission payouts are. In this article, I will go through step-by-step instructions on how I choose new profitable affiliate products to sell on a new website or blog.
For the purposes of this article, I am going to pretend I own a blog that teaches people how to play the acoustic guitar. I’m also going to assume I already have some traffic coming to the site and all I need to do is find profitable affiliate products to promote.
Checking The Profitability Of The Amazon Associates Program
Anyone can sign up for the Amazon Associates affiliate program. Since almost everyone already has an Amazon.com account, there is no issues with trust, so you can find some very profitable affiliate products to promote. Everyone trusts Amazon and most people have purchased items from them many times before. Another obvious advantage is the number of products Amazon sells. From guitars to training DVD’s to guitar accessories and whatever else you can think of, so you will not only earn commissions from profitable affiliate products that you are specifically targeting, but you will get some cheaper products as well. On top of that, when you refer someone to Amazon, you receive a commission for 24hrs on anything that individual buys. So, maybe I sent them over to Amazon because I was recommending a guitar, but they end up purchasing something completely unrelated like a grill. I earn the commission either way on absolutely anything they purchase. The more I sell, the higher percentage commission I earn.
Unfortunately, while Amazon has almost always been the #1 most popular affiliate program online, ever for profitable affiliate products, there are some drawbacks. First of all, the 24hr window is actually very short. Many other affiliate programs give you 30 days. If you refer someone to the site, anything they purchase for the next 30 days is eligible for a commission. So, Amazon’s 24hr window is very short. Additionally, commissions are very low compared to other programs. With Amazon, here is there commission structure…
ClickBank Affiliate Programs
ClickBank.com is one of the largest and most popular affiliate platforms in the World. They have thousands of profitable affiliate products and services you can promote and all of your payments can be handled and distributed in one place. The only real negative side to ClickBank is the number of poor quality products and services in the system. You’ve really got to be careful who you promote to make sure you aren’t promoting a less-than-ethical company. So, let’s take a look at this together….
There are several other services that are very similar to ClickBank with profitable affiliate products including:
Finding Profitable Affiliate Products Through An Internet Search
The final way I usually search for a profitable affiliate product is to perform a simple search in Google or any other search engine. In this case, I would search for “Guitar Affiliate Program” (without quotes). Here’s what comes up….
One that I really like on the first page of results is the Guitar Center affiliate program. With Guitar Center, I get 8% commissions right off the bat. Through Amazon, I’d have to make 631 sales before I see that kind of commission.
Making The Final Decision
If I personally had a blog or website about learning how to play the guitar, I would probably choose a few different profitable affiliate products and see what gives me the best results. First, I would attempt to earn some revenue with the Guitar Center affiliate program. After a couple months of revenue, I would then replace the Guitar Center program with Amazon, then compare the two. From there, I would choose whoever is the most profitable.
I would also find 2 or 3 ClickBank products to promote both on the site and through my email marketing campaigns. Find the profitable affiliate product with the best response and stick with it.
So there you have it! That’s how to find profitable affiliate products to sell on your website, blog, video blog, or anywhere else you’ve chosen as your affiliate sales platform. Now that you’ve seen the process with a real-world example, it’s time for you to go out there and do the same thing for your niche!
Have any suggestions of your own? Have some questions? Just use the commenting section below and I’ll get back with ya!