There are hundreds of affiliate networks. On each network, there can be hundreds of affiliate offers.
How do you possibly figure out which affiliate offer to promote?
Here are a few of my evaluation criteria:
1) Does the offer have brand equity (Is the company well known?)
I suppose this isn’t a requirement, but I’ve always had success promoting branded offers. I tend to stay away from email submit/zip submit offers which often have shady business practices.
The reason is to reduce risk. Why promote a sketchy offer (usually hosted on a shady affiliate network) that might not pay you or will “shave” your leads.. when you can just as easily work with a reputable company on a legitimate network?
2) How much search volume is in the niche?
Use the new Search Volume feature in Google’s Keyword tool & make sure that the top keyword phrase for your niche has a search volume of at least 2,000,000+++/Month.
I would rather take a big bite out of a big pie than play in niches with little search volume. There are plenty of great niches with high search volume. Why would you want to artificially limit yourself and make it more difficult to expand your offer in the future?
3) Are other affiliates having success with this offer?
This is huge and it’s taken me a long time to learn. Try to find offers that appear in Adwords over a long period of time. I use iSpionage for this type of competitive analysis.
Again, the reason is to reduce risk. Let other affiliates waste their own money on untested offers– just watch how long they stick around in PPC.
4) How much value does the offer provide to users?
When you are providing value to others, you will do well. This applies to life and to choosing affiliate offers. If you find an offer that actually provides legitimate value, it will be more long-term and stable– and makes good business sense.
5) How large is the “Keyword Universe”?
I’ve discussed the concept of the “keyword universe” in the past. Dating has a huge keyword universe because there are millions of phrases people might type into Google when looking for dating information. However, “swimming pool quotes” has a poor keyword universe because there are very few ways to describe the topic/offer.
So what criteria do you use for choosing offers?