Find Product to Market

Too many affiliate marketers get sucked into promoting a product because of three reasons:  it is new, it has a high commission rate, and it has a high dollar payout.

All good reasons to choose a product.  But toss out the first factor – new.  So much hype accompanies the launch of some affiliate products–notably info products from programs such as Clickbank–that affiliates can get sucked in.  And then lose a lot of money in the process.  Clickbank in particular lists a lot of half-baked info products that the merchant never took time to refine.

Consider these factors when choosing an affiliate product:

• What is the Return Rate? Clickbank has a generous return policy.  Every product that gets returned erodes your profit every time it happens.
• Does the Merchant Adequately Support Affiliates? Some merchants could care less about their affiliates, while other merchants have what they often call an “Affiliate Resource Center.”  These centers are often a webpage that lists some ideas for how to promote the product, along with a few keywords and some banner ads.
• Is the Product Going Up or Down? Sites such as CB Engine and CB Analytics provide free snapshots into the history of Clickbank products.  Several factors are are at play, but Gravity is an important one.  Higher Gravity is better than lower Gravity.  But note, as in the graph, that extremely high Gravity in the 400+ range means that products are flooded with affiliate competition.
• Earning Per Sale.  Another huge factor that affiliates often ignore–often dooming many affiliates’ campaigns.  Earning Per Sale (EPC) takes into account all factors that will influence your eventual payout.  For a simplified and unrealistic example, consider a product that pays out $100 per sale.  But if every other product gets returned, in the end you’re only getting $50 average per sale.
• Product Commission Rate. In Clickbank, you should expect at least 50% commission rate.  But the high commission rates are due to the high profit margin of info products.  Physical products have much lower commission rates.
• Product Commission $ Payout.  Many affiliates are tempted by high dollar payouts.  They see $40+ payouts and decide to jump on the bandwagon.  But high dollar payouts by themselves are meaningless.  For example, a product may pay out $50 commissions…but the advertising rates on pay per click systems such as Google AdWords are so high that it is prohibitively expensive to advertise.