The Highest Paying Affiliate Programs Are Not Always The Most lucrative!

If that seems a contradiction in terms, read on!  It could save you going through a steep and painful learning curve!

The web, as many budding entrepreneurs well know, appears to be a glittering gold mine of affiliate marketing opportunities bursting at the seams with easy picking schemes which will line your pockets with a never ending supply of cash and allow you to sit back and enjoy a hedonistic life style a kin to the rich and famous!

If you think I’m exaggerating, just take a look at the many affiliate directories advertising partnership programs on every subject under the sun.  Add to these the huge number of so called marketing gurus enthusing orgasmically about the latest sure fire marketing method “rock solid” guaranteed to earn you a six figure, income by promoting these products and you can see why affiliate marketing is so popular!

Putting the hype aside, promoting affiliate products can be a lucrative income stream, but you won’t make a penny unless you rub the glitter from your eyes and make a realistic appraisal of the situation.

Given the amount of partnership schemes around, it is tempting to go for the highest paying affiliate program you can find.   Unless you are a real expert at internet marketing, you will almost certainly be doomed to failure! 

The reason being, many of the highest paying affiliate programs are in the financial services sector, e.g. credit cards and mortgages.  These areas are very, very competitive and you would have to be an exceptionally good marketer to compete with those already doing very nicely thank you.

Rather than attempt to take on these highly saturated areas, it is much better to look for well paying affiliate programs in a particular niche.  That is, a subject that you have some knowledge of and perhaps a passion for.

UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF THE GAME

At this point, it would be wise to flag up a few issues many new affiliate marketers do not consider.

1.     Many affiliate programs are not worth the effort of joining!  Why?  Simply because the product is low priced which means the affiliate commission will be even lower.  Someone once told me it is just as hard to make a £3 sale as a £300 one.  I’m not sure I totally agree, but I do see his point, both sales involve effort and hard work so it is as well to make sure you get a proper reward.

2.     Payment thresholds are another issue that can be problematic.  Nearly all affiliate programs set a limit on payouts which means you have to earn a certain amount before you will be paid.  This isn’t too bad if the limit is set low, but often it is unrealistically high so check the small print before spending time trying to promote products which will take years to trigger the payment threshold.

3.     Currency issues.  Many affiliate schemes use Paypal.  Paypal allows payment transfers between many different currencies and countries and for me at any rate, works with few issues.  However, there are still many affiliate schemes which insist on paying by cheque in their own currency.  Clickbank, one of the biggest affiliate umbrella sites does this.  It is no problem if you live in the USA, but non-US members have to put up with a cheque which, in the UK, currently costs £10 to deposit!

WHERE TO FIND THE HIGHEST PAYING NICHE AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

I’ve already mentioned Clickbank as it is one of the biggest collections of affiliate programs on the web and has good search facilities including the option to search on commission.  Be warned though, a lot of these programs are rubbishy ebooks compiled by non-writers from spun blog posts and widely available private label rights articles.

Anyone serious about running a legitimate internet business which cares and respects its customers, would not want to risk destroying their reputation by promoting this kind of garbage.  In view of this it is always a good idea to buy a copy of whatever you are promoting and read or use it yourself.

Another good method of finding niche affiliate programs is to run a search on Google for your niche topic and take a close look at the results.  You will see that many of the sites returned carry some form of advertising.  Check these out they could well be affiliate programs which would suit your purpose.

DO THIS NEXT!

I’ve listed a few of the highest paying affiliate programs I use in another article which you may like to bookmark as it will be updated on a regular basis.