Finding the Golden Needle in the Affiliate Haystack

Jeremy Palmer:

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges as an affiliate is finding good advertisers. No matter how good your keywords or landing pages are, the advertiser still has to close the deal. Nothing is more frustrating as an affiliate than spending time and money on a campaign that breaks even or loses money.

I get several calls and e-mails from Affiliate Managers every month asking me to promote their programs. Every introduction starts out the same: “My name is _____, I’m with _____, and we’re very interested in having you promote us. Our affiliate program is one of the best converting and highest paying in our industry�?

The pitch always sounds good, but after running their campaigns for a few weeks I find that most of the programs over-promise and under-deliver. Occasionally, I do find a few good programs through these solicited offers, but most of them don’t work out.