8 Warning Signs When Evaluating Affiliate Marketing Programs

Affiliate Marketing

When evaluating affiliate marketing programs, there are clear plus factors and clear no-go pointers. However, there is also a grey zone. With some research and awareness, it's easy to guard yourself against joining the wrong affiliate marketing program.

Watch for these warning signs...

*"Pay-per-click" method of payment -- This means that you get paid whenever a visitor clicks on your link. No purchase or lead-generation necessary.

Unfortunately, it's wide open for abuse. Very sophisticated folks create incentives to get thousands of people to click on their links. However, the visitors could care less about the products being promoted. It's virtually unstoppable. And merchants end up paying for nothing, so merchants cancel or change the program.

In theory, pay-per-click affiliate programs are a good idea. Unfortunately, they attract "scam artist affiliates." Sooner or later, merchants seem to throw in the towel against the onslaught. So be wary -- these kind of affiliate programs tend to dissolve or mutate into a different model.

* Multi-tier commission -- This is online MLM (Multi Level Marketing, also known as Network Marketing), which is perfectly legal. Do your due diligence to make sure, of course, that a multi-tier program is not an illegal pyramid scheme. If the "game" is to earn income by signing up others, you most likely are dealing with a pyramid. Many people confuse honest, legal MLM with dishonest, scammy pyramid schemes.

With MLM, it becomes as important to build a strong downline as it does to sell product. Also, MLM companies are subject to numerous regulations (to prevent them from becoming pyramids, basically). Not all online companies are complying.

* Poor or little info about affiliate program available. What kind of priority could it have?

* Dead links on merchant site.

* No clear anti-spamming policy visible on site.

* Site that promotes "get-rich-quick" gimmicks.

* Financially unstable. You can lose a lot of momentum if a company goes under, especially if you were banking on lifetime customer/2-tier promises.

* Poor traffic stats, and low Google PageRank score (how important Google considers a page to be -- important pages have higher positions on search results pages). Free tools like the Google Toolbar and Alexa, can tell you a lot about a site. If there's no traffic, how successful can it really be?

Don't worry about identifying all of the criteria before you join affiliate marketing programs. Some can only be found after joining. Others only become clear over the weeks that follow. The key is to keep them all on your radar.

Bypass losers. Spend your time on smart, stable, ethical companies with great products that meet the needs of your visitors. When your visitors follow your recommendations and buy quality products, they win, your merchant-partners win, and you win with affiliate commissions!

Learn how to combine affiliate marketing with other ways to monetize your website. Never rely on a single income stream. Diversify!