Now that you know what affiliate marketing is, I bet you’re interested in finding profitable products to sell. You will want to find products based on a number of factors. These include:

- Money earned per sale -
If you are selling digital products, 50% commission is fairly normal. Of course, this can be 50% on 10$ or 97$. This is definitely not the most important factor, but it’s something to consider. Always choose product quality over profit.

- Conversion rate -
This is how many prospects are converted into buyers on average. An industry standard is about 1%, but you want to try and find the highest % possible for your targeted, referred traffic.

- Sales Page / Product Quality (Refund Rates) -
You want to make sure that the product you are promoting is actually a quality product. Read through their sales page or product page; does it entice you to buy? Does it look like a great deal? Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Also, check out what other people have to say and if they provide refund rates, since those come out of your commissions.

- Visitor Tracking Length -
It often takes visitors more than 1 visit to buy, so you want to make sure you are credited for return visit sales. Check how long your visitors are tracked.

- Affiliate Help -
Something most sellers do not do nearly enough is provide help to their affiliates. This can come in the form of affiliate banners (although banners really don’t work anymore), keyword lists, support email, click tracking… Anything that helps you to sell more products is fantastic.

- Trusted Affiliate Programs -
Here is an important one. You may want to join someone’s affiliate program, but you have to realize that theoretically, they can easily choose not to pay you, skim hits (not credit you for all traffic), charge you a sign up fee…

First and foremost, NEVER PAY A SIGN UP FEE. If someone is charging you to sell their product, that is an INSTANT red flag. They are surely just trying to grab your money and run. You want to make sure that the person running the affiliate program is trusted among the internet marketing community. Check for reviews of their affiliate programs.

If you want to avoid this hassle and the possibility of getting ripped off, I highly recommend simply looking for products in the Clickbank Marketplace System, at Commission Junction, and at PayDotCom.

These are well known and well respected 3rd party affiliate programs that will protect you from fraud by sellers.

I use Clickbank myself to sell my products, and am very happy with them. Very easy to use system and one of the largest database of affiliate sales opportunities.

Commission Junction is host to many popular brands, and is a great resource for electronic and physical goods.

PayDotCom is also a great program, and has the added benefit of paying you directly to your paypal account.

Definitely check out all three to find the perfect products for you to sell!

- Find a Hungry Niche you are interested in -
The main point is that you want to provide quality, “ready to buy” traffic to your affiliated products. So don’t choose something you are not willing or interested in promoting.

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