Choosing the right Affiliate Product to promote

Learning what products to promote is actually quite simple - if you listen to the professionals who have been doing it for years. Selecting a good converting, reasonably priced product is actually easier than choosing the right merchant. In most cases, the merchant and the product go hand in hand. Here we will help you set out some basic criteria to help you choose products that can best make you money.

The Basics
If you have done your homework and chosen a quality merchant then chances are have looked at the products and creatives then you have probably considered the products that they sell. If you haven't - you should be doing this!

What sells?
Actually, everything can sell eventually but what consistently sell? Books, magazines, gadgets and small stuff under $40 flies off the shelves but the problem is that it is almost impossible to make money from lesser priced items unless you have a Web site with lots of free traffic. The average book sells from around $7 to $10. If your commission is 5%, that means you pocket between 35¢ to 50¢. There is not margin of profit in this - at 10¢ per paid click (at the cheap end), you would have to convert every three to five clicks! That will not happen.

Set your price properly
It is simple - if you are doing a PPC program or have low traffic levels, only promote mid priced item. By mid priced, I mean $70 to $100. Anything above this will convert less and generally have higher rates

If you are paying for traffic - only promote items priced $70 to $100 dollars.

of returns. That is, bad returns as in - take the product back and get a refund (no you don't get a commission on returned items). Many Affiliate Marketers promote items of all sorts of different prices - but do they make enough to live on? I bet not! Sell a DVD player for $150 and pocket $15 dollars is much more interesting than the ¢35 for the book right?

Know What you sell
If you don't know anything about the products you are selling, how do you know that you aren't making mistakes? It is only common sense. If you don't know about the product, either educate yourself, get advice from others or skip ahead to another product.