Choose an affiliate program (Work From Home Idea)

Choose the Affiliate program. Part 1

In last post, we have discussed about choosing a subject for your work from home idea. This time I will talk about choosing the right Affiliate Program for your work from home idea.

Once you have determined a market you want to cater to, it’s time to choose the profit-generating machinery of this moneymaking process.

Basically you have 2 choices:

1. Either you choose an affiliate program; or

2. You join an affiliate network

What is the different? Let’s discuss them separately.

An affiliate program is one where the merchant directly employs an affiliate system to hire affiliates. The affiliates will deal with the merchant directly. There will be no third party, no broker to speak of. The merchant will be the one to distribute affiliate links, give away things to help in promoting the products, and finally, pay the affiliates their commissions.

An affiliate network, on the other hand, is a system which an affiliate can join. Upon enrollment, he will gain access to hundreds, if not thousands, of products from different merchants. He can choose which product to promote. The affiliate network serves as the broker between the affiliates and the merchants. The good example of affiliate network is clickbank at www.clickbank.com. Many people use clickbank and generate income from home.

Anywhere there are pros and cons for each choice.

Affiliate Network
The pros
An affiliate network is an excellent choice for people who can’t decide on what product to promote. With the numerous of choices presented by affiliate networks, and with the freedom to choose any product at any time, affiliate networks offer great opportunities for you to work from home.

The cons
Thousands, if not millions, of people share the same thought about affiliate networks.
This means thousands, if not millions, of competitors for you for any product you will choose under a particular affiliate network.
The secret to online success is actually quite simple. It can be summarized through the equation below…

high demand for a product + few competition = maximum profit

This is true for any business include work from home business.
Affiliate networks may offer a hot product, but if millions of affiliates will promote it, you chances of succeeding will be affected.
This doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t succeed if you’re enrolled under an affiliate network. With the succeeding lessons, you will learn how to elevate your game and emerge triumphant in the field of affiliate marketing even if you will be competing against millions of other affiliates.

Affiliate programs

The Cons
An affiliate program, quite obviously, will offer fewer products for you to promote. You’ll be limited to the merchant’s products only.

The Pros
However, affiliate programs employ fewer affiliates. This means less competition. And this further means greater chances to succeed.
Not satisfied with the sales rate of a particular product under an affiliate program’s banner?
No problem! You can join multiple affiliate programs! There is no limit as to how many affiliate programs you can join.
Better yet, almost all affiliate programs are free to join. They won’t charge you a single cent for your membership. After all, you are the one who will be helping the merchant sell his products. You are the one who has to be paid!

In part 2 on choosing the affiliate program, I will talk about how to identify the good and bad affiliate program. This is important to make sure your idea to work from home is a success.