What makes you promote the affiliate products that you promote?

I look for a offer that my list members will get a HUGE benefit from in terms of results and/or value.

That is my No.1 determination.

I'm afraid that's NOT always the case in our marketplace.

Many affiliates are looking for the highest earnings and EPC's (Earnings per click) ... and, sadly, many people promote without even looking at the product.

I put my customers needs, wants and desires FIRST as I want to maintain that relationship ... and, well, because I have their best interests at heart.

In terms of platforms, it depends on what you are offering.

If you are into the IM space, I would say go with JVZoo ... anything else, stick to Clickbank and always offer 60%+ to attract decent affiliates.

Having a backend in place too before you recruit is also crucial IMO.

Hope that helps.

if the vender is active and answers my questions, and if the product actually provides value and what it promises, I stay away from the BS!

3 things I look for.

1. I want to make sure I'm going to get paid.

2. It must be something useful that my customers need and want.

3. I need to like you on a personal level.

In addition, I look for affiliate offers that have a monthly residual component, or a big ticket upsell. I don't want to spend my time messing around promoting other people's $7 products, unless there is a much bigger backend upsell potential. IMHO, that's where the big money is for affiliate offers.

GB, it really has to sing with me. I have to use it - or I need to have used the product in the past - and I need to believe in it, and I need to see immense benefit for my readers, using that bad boy, to promote this affiliate product.

I'd say, if you enjoyed using something and it's relevant to your niche and you believe in it you'll have the energy juju to build a prospering campaign. That's the secret of secrets; getting super clear on the energy side of things.

All the best!

Ryan

I promote established sellers with a good reputation for support (I made an exception with Sean Donahoe's Profit Builder after he fixed the bugs in it), and I don't promote a lot of buggy products.

When Video Jacker launched, I bought it, tested it, and after determining it was a crap product, I told my list not to buy it. So I not only promote products, I promote against some too.

As for the personal earnings part of it, I look for a sales funnel that seems like it will convert to sales on the front end at a 10% conversion rate or higher during launch, and an upsell that will convert at 20% or higher during launch. I lower that quite a bit for after launch products, and then I put a lot of weight on the refund rate - the lower the better.

If the upsell sucks, I won't promote it unless the Front End cost is high enough to make it worth my effort. But this is my criteria for using paid traffic. I lower expectations when using free traffic, and with list traffic I'll promote anything that I think the people on my list will find useful, even if it is cheap, and even if I won't gain anything by it.

The market in general is becoming wiser, and even though some sellers may still get by with what I call "permission spamming", and still make money with bad support, and still make money with buggy plugins and software, things are definitely changing, and for the better.

The buyers expect more, and the sellers who give them more and provide an overall good buying experience are the ones I'll promote now and in the future.

I know a lot of people think you can just unsubscribe from those sellers who are doing permission spamming, but when you buy a product that will have updates, the sellers use that as an opportunity to spam the hell out of you, knowing you'll stay signed up because you want to be alerted about the updates. So buyers get caught in a trap. I've even seen sellers send emails with the subject "Product Name - Update" and the email won't have anything in it but an affiliate product pitch.

Thank you all for replying. This is the first product I've ever planned to recruit affiliates for. Your insight will definitely help us provide our affiliates with what they want/need.

I'm not a big affiliate marketer but I will promote a product
to my list if it is so good that I don't mind if I don't even get
paid for the recommendation. So it must have incredible
value to my list so that I would recommend it even if there
was no commission involved.

-Ray Edwards

1. Is it a good product? If not, then all the other things don't matter. Then I'm not promoting.
2. Is the product relevant for my list?
3. Do I trust the vendor?
4. Is the vendor offering fair commissions? 100% of $7-9.95 for example.
5. Is the payout instant? If not, then the reason for delayed payment has to be really good. I normally avoid promoting with delayed payment, because I hate to beg for my money, and that has happened several times, even from the big-guys.

1.) High quality product from trusted vendor

2.) High quality product from newbie that I've tested myself and said WOW.

3.) Products my list would love (but I would never use myself simply because I'm not in that niche. Always repeat to yourself, you are not your customer)

4.) High affiliate commissions (especially if the FE is cheap).

5.) Converting funnels.

1. Would this product genuinely help my subscribers?
2. Would I buy this product if I were in the market?
3. Have I used this product and liked it?
4. Is the product priced fairly?
5. Are customers satisfied? What's the refund rate?

These are all extremely important factors when it comes to choosing a product to promote. Most of my revenue comes from repeat buyers rather than one-off purchases so I've really got to be sure the buyer enjoys the product so I do not shred my credibility.

In one small niche I'm working on now, there was only one other product for sale. I was declined a review copy and the product looked like garbage, so I created my own. Even though (at the time) I thought there was no other way to really profit from these subscribers, I still took the time to create my own product rather than promote something I thought looked like junk.

Don't think the other guy is doing too well these days. Me on the other hand... I think there's a lot more profitability in this niche than I originally thought.

In the end, how your subscribers value you and your credibility is extremely important, and should be your number one priority.

I mostly promote vendors I have a history with who's products are high quality and convert.