How Do You Choose an Affiliate Marketing Program? — 3 Key Factors

Here’s what I’ve learned so far about how to choose an affiliate program as a beginner.

In my most recent blog about affiliate marketing, I discussed how I’m changing my strategy and have identified the main niche I want to focus on.

Here it is:

While researching how affiliate marketing works and the best ways to earn money, I learned a few key things about these programs.

These aspects are crucial to know if you are a beginner like me and have no idea which program to choose.

Before I jump into these factors, here are some recommendations to make the process less stressful and daunting.

I think it’s best to choose a niche based on your lifestyle or a topic or topics you’re already familiar with.

For example, I’m familiar with health and wellness. I’ve been going to the gym and working out since I was eighteen (I’m twenty-seven). That’s almost a decade of information and experience!

This is something I could leverage with affiliate marketing.

After having an idea of where you want to start, time to research affiliate programs that fit your niche.

Side note. If you’re a beginner, I would recommend not niching down too much to take the stress off of yourself.

There are many different categories in the health and wellness space. Supplements, equipment, vitamins, healthy recipes, and so on.

Don’t focus on just one. Try the ones you’re familiar with and see which fits you best. Give yourself plenty of time to figure this out.

Back to the three factors.

Finding an affiliate program is a little more complex than what I’ve found affiliate marketing gurus suggest after choosing your niche.

After reading article after article on affiliate programs and their features, I’ve learned three things that can tell you if the program is worth your time and effort.

These are commission percentage/rate, cookie life, and earnings per click (EPC).

Commission percentage (or rate)

This is pretty straightforward — how much does the program pay you if you make a sale?

I’ve found programs that offer 5% all the way up to 60% in commission payouts.

Of course, the higher the percentage, the better. If you get a sale, you can keep a larger amount of money.

I don’t think this needs to be mentioned, but I’ll say it anyways — do your due diligence and make sure the product or service offered by the program is of good quality.

If people want refunds, you will lose the money you’ve made. So make sure that what you’re selling is something that you yourself would keep.

There’s not much else to say about this. It’s straightforward like I said.

Cookie Life

Now, this is something I had no idea about until I read a blog a few weeks ago that addressed this topic.

I had not come across an affiliate marketing blog that explained this, and this saddens me because it is a crucial piece of information.

Before reading this, I was under the impression that hoplinks or affiliate links — links the affiliate program gives you so you can post them with content you create — had lifetime cookies.

Boy, was I disappointed to find out these links will not earn you money after a certain amount of time has passed.

In simple terms, cookies track the affiliate link back to you (the marketer), so when a sale is made, the program knows it’s your sale and pays you the corresponding commission.

Unfortunately, some of the most popular affiliate programs or networks have 24-hour cookies, meaning after 24 hours, if a sale is made, you won’t get paid — one of those is Amazon Affiliates.

I was really sad to find this out because I love Amazon and purchase so many items from them.

I was hoping to include them in my strategy, but now that I know how short their cookie life is, I will choose other programs instead.

Let me explain to you why cookie life matters and the great advantage it is to have a link with a long cookie life.

Let’s say, for example, you write a blog or create a post about a product, and it gets traction. If the post keeps getting views days or weeks after the date you posted it, you can update the link less frequently so you can keep earning money.

Let me elaborate — you create a post about a product or service, and it goes viral. People click on it, purchase the item or service, and start making money.

If the link has a short cookie life, for example, 24 hours, you would need to update or change the link every 24 hours to continue making money.

But if you choose an affiliate program with a longer cookie life, let’s say, 60 days, if the post is still getting traction after 60 days, one, you would have made more money with less stress (since you didn’t have to constantly go back to the post and update the link).

Two, you would only need to update the link every 60 days and continue making money long after you created the post.

Doesn’t that sound awesome?! You created content, posted it once, and after 60 days, you’re still making money.

If the post is still getting traction after months, even years, all you need to do is keep updating the link every 60 days— that’s passive income!

The lesson here is to look for affiliate programs with a longer cookie life. Even if a significant amount of time has passed, you still have an opportunity to make money.

Earnings per click (EPC)

Earnings per click, or EPC, lets you know, on average, what you could make advertising a product or service.

Let me give you an example of why EPC is important to know.

Now I’m sure many of you have heard of high-ticket affiliate marketing — what this means is selling items with a high price tag, so your commission is a lot higher. Therefore the average commission payout is higher.

It also means you wouldn’t need a huge sales volume to make a decent amount of money. A few sales are enough to earn you a nice chunk of change.

The higher the EPC, the fewer sales you need to make a good amount of money.

I’m currently researching various programs that have decent commission rates, longer cookie life, and also decent earnings per click. Once I complete that list, I will share it here on Medium.

These are the 3 factors that, as a beginner, I think are crucial to know to choose an affiliate program.

If anyone would like to add anything else or correct me if I’m wrong about any of these, please share it in the comments. After all, I’m also a beginner :)

Disclaimer — The statements above are my personal opinion of what a beginner to affiliate marketing should know when they decide to sign up for an affiliate program. However, there’s no guarantee that these factors will earn someone a sale or ensure long-lasting success in the affiliate marketing space. I’m writing this based on my personal experience and for information purposes only.