By Kurt Naulaerts

Before joining any affiliate program, you will want to first ask questions, conduct research on that particular program, and the choices offered. Ask questions first before you join an affiliate program. It is important that you obtain answers to your question, this will help you in determining if the program is right for you.

What questions should you be asking of the affiliate program before joining? Here are some ideas.

What does it cost?
If you are like most people, you want programs that are free. There are many affiliate programs available that are absolutely free. Therefore, you should avoid programs that will charge you money just to join.

When do you provide the commission checks?
When it comes to affiliate programs, no two are alike they each differ. However, you can count on commission checks either weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly. You should choose a program that offers you what you want in terms of payment. Some programs have begun setting a earned minimum before they will issue a check. Therefore, it will be a requirement that you earn that amount prior to getting any payment.

What is the hit per sale ratio?
This is determined by the amount of clicks onto a text link or banner that is will take to get a sale. This is also determined by looking at statistics from all affiliates. This an important factor to question. This will allow you to understand just how high your traffic flow must be before you will be able to enjoy the commission.

How do you track referrals and how long will they stay on the system?
The program needs to gain your trust and confidence by tracking your referrals. The only way to obtain any credit from sales is if they are tracked. You should also be concerned with the amount of time the referrals will remain within their system. Sometimes visitors will not make a purchase immediately, but return at a later date to buy that item. If they remain on the system for a while, you will still receive credit for that sale, otherwise, you will lose it.

What kind of affiliate stats do you offer?
You want to choose an affiliate program that offers you detailed statistics. Furthermore, you should be able access them any time of the day, from anywhere. These stats provide you with information regarding the number of sales, hits, and impressions that has been generated from your website. Impressions tell you just how many times your text link or visitors on your website saw the banner. A hit constitutes the number of clicks on the link or banner.

Does the affiliate program also pay for the hits and impressions besides the commissions on sales? It is important that impressions and hits are also paid, as this will add to the earnings you get from the sales commission. This is especially important if the program you are in offers low sales to be able to hit ratio.

Who is the online retailer?
It is important to determine if the company you are dealing with a solid and trusting company. You should always test and known about the products you are promoting, as well as just how they average in terms of sales. Finding out as much as you can about the retailer will help you in determining if you are choosing the right affiliate program.

Is the affiliate a one-tier or two-tier program?
This is another important aspect. With a program that is one-tier, you can only generate income from the sales that you, yourself has generated. With a two-tier affiliate program, allows you to generate income from not only your sales, but as well as the sales from affiliates you have brought into the program. Furthermore, some affiliate programs that are two-tier are giving sponsors a small fee for referrals.

How much commission is paid?
Most programs offer commission of between 5% and 20%. This works to around .01 percent to .05 percent per hit received. Some programs will pay per impression; however, the amount is not that high. Because of these commission percentages, it is ultimately important that you have an understanding of the hit to sale ratio, as well as the average amount of sales.

The above questions are just a few of the questions you should be asking prior to joining any type of affiliate programs. It is important that you understand all aspects of the affiliate program you choose, in order to fully benefit from everything an affiliate program can offer you.

About The Author

Kurt Naulaerts runs a web site promotion service and also teaches people how to become successful with affiliate marketing. Find out how to start an income online using affiliate marketing programs.

By Kristy Taylor

There are so many trendy phrases on-line, as well as jargon that is too technical for the average user, that sometimes it is hard to decipher it all. Even with something so easy as passive income and residual income. Web page upon web page is using the two terms interchangeably and that is wrong. There is a slight, but significant, difference between the two.

Let us begin by going to the most basic difference, the definitions of both.

* Passive Income
Income that is earned through investments, real estate or certain internet ventures. Once the initial investment has been made (whether it be in time or monetarily), the individual does not have to be actively involved after that to make money. View yourself being passive and what do you see? Someone sitting, being lazy and inactive! That is just how passive income works. You don’t have to do anything to make the money you receive.

* Residual Income
Payments made to an individual based on a specific time table after a sale. The amount of each payment is normally a pre-agreed upon amount. Although not an on-line example, royalties are considered to be residual income. Whether the person is a writer, an actor or an illustrator, these people get paid for works that get sold and re-sold and placed into syndication.

When you look at these definitions, you can see that residual income can be called passive income under most conditions, but the reverse is never the case. Once you have put significant work into making the money, you are looking at residual income that will turn passive with time.

So, when you are looking at making money on-line, there are some methods that are ‘passive’ and some that are ‘residual’. Let us take a look at some from each category.

Passive Income Methods:

1. Search Engine Optimization, also known by the acronym SEO, is a passive way to get income. When a search engine ranks you in the top 10, you will get targeted Internet traffic to your site. Whether you are selling products, a service, or just information, you can get passive income just by getting those people to your site once it has been created.

2. Pay Per Click advertising, or PPC advertising, is a passive way to get income. Although you must invest in the advertising, these targeted ads draw business to your site. Once that has been set up with a PPC advertising service, no time or effort is required on your part.

Once these methods of making money are in place, you sit back and have no further investment of time or money ahead of you. You simply enjoy the income.

Residual Income Methods:

1. Selling anything on-line, whether it is a good or service, where the fee is automatically renewed every so often is a residual way to make income.

2. Network marketing which requires you to go out and get customers or find representatives to get customers, from which you earn commissions every month is a residual way to make income.

Affiliate programs fall somewhere between the two. Sometimes they will take very little effort on your part, even from the start, so can be considered passive. However, there are times when a great amount of effort is put forth on your part and payments will be made in such a way that they would be considered residual.

No matter which road you choose, both passive and residual income are great ways to supplement your income or raise the level of your lifestyle. With research, practice, and a little bit of good luck, you can make a good amount of money with either.

About The Author

Kristy Taylor is a syndicated freelance journalist with articles and short stories strewn across all forms of media. Join her plus 1000’s of real people worldwide who are building their own ‘Income for Life’ -
Posted in Online Marketing September 13th, 2006 by Sellportal | No comments