Affiliate Marketing Program Selection (BASIC) Criteria

There are many options to earn online and one of them is affiliate marketing. We often see a lot of screenshots shared by people implying how much they have made. Some see them as enticing while others see it as a potential scam.

If you are new in this space, here are my suggested criteria considerations:

1. The company / brand must be known.
   No introduction is necessary. But products must be same / similar to how you know what the brand is about. Otherwise, you will work 10x harder as 80% of your time will be spent communicating to people that the brand is not a scam. If you are a service provider (blogger, digital influencer, etc.), make sure there is no conflict of interest with your client to avoid misunderstanding. Unless loyalty does not exist or was not established in the first place.

2. You are a customer of the brand.
   When a prospective affiliate program is shared to you, try the product or service. If you can't imagine yourself using the product or service, or not convinced on how good it is, how can you be effective in selling it?

3. You can earn from every sale.
   It must be straightforward. One sale = one commission (recurring or one time). Complicated conditions are a big turn off unless they are giving marketing budget support or onboarding fee.

4. You can earn outside of the sale.
   If you can also earn by becoming an expert in that product or service, offering training or consulting, the better. For example, you earn an affiliate commission for every person who subscribes to an education site. ------- But you are also offering courses on that site - which allows you to earn per student. ---------- But you are also a consultant assisting other trainers to get their content in the system, manage it for them, and earn a fee for the service and commission from every student. --- But you are also a trainer teaching people on how to create e-learning or courses content online.

5. It must strengthen your brand.
   The moment you find yourself shy or uncertain if you are willing to promote the affiliate program you joined in - on your timeline or to you friends --- then maybe that affiliate program is not the one for you.

An affiliate program should give you growth opportunities. Not the kind where the only entity benefiting is the one you are promoting. Unless you are contented being a minion.

This is tackled in greater detail in our Certified E-Commerce Entrepreneur Program (Track 2) as students work on their marketplace projects. More info at http://digitalfilipino.com/certified