Affiliate Programs

We will use the term affiliate programs to refer to all affiliate programs other than Google. Some affiliate programs are packaged like those at commission junction. If you have not heard of cj.com, it is the web address of commission junction. Commission junction is an affiliate “Mecca”. There you can find credit card programs, real estate, loans, etc. These people specialize in selling products on-line for other companies. Some of the highest paying affiliate lead programs are listed below:

• Countrywide

• LowerMyBills.com

• Foreign Credit Card Companies

• Chase Manhattan Bank

These programs pay for leads. Leads are simply web surfers that fill out forms for their
website. You post the form on your website, and when forms are completed, you get a
check in the mail. Affiliate programs are very hot right now. Getting users to fill out
forms can be very challenging, and of course there are some nifty tricks you need to
know.

Often the pay per lead can be quite high, for instance some programs can pay $32.00 per completed form, and credit card companies can pay $150 per approved credit card application. Getting clients to fill out credit card applications can be extremely lucrative! Here are some commonly used tactics to get clients to fill out forms:

1. Offer a free gift (this is the same tactic used in malls)

2. Stack your applications for a “nice” gift (this can sometimes net as much as $500 per
person with good credit)

3. Use a mailing list of trusted resources to get forms filled out

4. Place the forms in community websites where visitors feel comfortable in filling outforms
5. Create “free stuff” websites where visitors come looking to do a little work get somethingfor free

6. Target market your products by offering free CDs to music lovers, etc

7. Spread your commissions across websites targeting high and low commission item
basing your advertising on customer interest versus your need for money


The richest affiliate programs require customers to become leads for major companies. Other programs simply require users to click on a link on the website. By far the biggest of these programs is Google’s pay-per-click program. Yahoo has also started a similar program, but it is not as mature as Google. Many, many smaller programs exist claiming they pay more per click than Google but you need to watch out for several big stumbling blocks. Many marketers think that if they get to the top of a search engine in a category they will get rich. It simply does not work that way. Often traffic to a website only converts at a rate of 1-3% to Adsense clicks. This trend is true with other pay-per- click programs as well. Nothing can be more valuable than relevant ads streaming to your affiliate website. Web position is crucial, but ad relevancy is the second, critical piece. What good does it do to be the second website on Yahoo, in South Carolina business which gets an average of 6,000 hits per month when, all your Google ads are about
banking? Your links will never get clicked. The same is true with other pay-per-click programs.

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