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Let’s face it; you are getting involved with affiliate programs because you want to make money. Some people might tell you it is for a greater purpose, but don’t you believe it. I saw one program that is supposed to send money to save the rain forests. They might very well send some money to protect the rain forests, but their main objective is to protect their bank account.
As one of our Super Affiliates says in his overview: (you can read this in our Super Affiliate Overview section) It is okay to be rich. But, remember, you are not going to become an instant millionaire; I don’t care what program you sign up with.
If you choose the program that is right for you and you work the program in good faith and you give 100% effort and you don’t bounce all over the place, you will make money, pure and simple. The amount you make and the timeframe to making money is going to depend on too many variables to discuss. I will tell you again, if you are thinking you are going to make millions of dollars in a week or month or year, it simply isn’t going to happen.
You will be in for a letdown and then you will get discouraged and then you will start bouncing in desperation to multiple programs and pretty soon, your budget is gone, your desire is gone and you will have nothing to show for your efforts, but a drained bank account and a very bad taste in your mouth about working programs on the Internet.
Okay, let’s talk about payment programs and what the different types mean to you as an affiliate.
One-time payments:
One-time payment programs are when you make a sale and you get a commission-end of story. My personal opinion is to avoid these types of programs. You might make a nice commission up-front, but the big winner is the company you just sold for. They get the sale, and they get the buyers information and they can then continue to market to this person, cutting you out of the picture. You did the work, and they get the glory.
You are in this type of moneymaking program for yourself and if you are with a good affiliate program, you will be in it for your affiliate partners. It is great that you work with a good company that has a good product or service, but at the end of the day, your ultimate goal is to put some coin in your pocket that will continue to grow.
Recurring Payments: Remember that now famous phrase, “Show me the money” this is the type of program you want to align yourself with. Recurring payments are setup so you continue making commissions every month for as long as you and your affiliate partners stay with a program.
Find a solid program with recurring payments, as this is your best bet to secure your financial future. The majority of affiliate programs are 2-tier. This means you sell person A and they sell person B and you get a percent from your first tier (person A) and a percent from your second tier (person B). Generally anything more than 2 tiers are considered to be an MLM program (multilevel marketing), and while there is nothing wrong with a solid MLM program, some of the payment processors such as PayPal and most credit card companies do not allow MLM to be sold through their systems. This reduces the number of prospects for you to sell to.
Commission Percentages: You will find a lot of similarities with programs on the Internet and the commission payment scale is one of those. Most companies pay 30% - 40\% for your first tier sales and 10% – 15% for second tier sales. There is nothing wrong with these types of payment structures if you are okay giving the majority of the money you make back to the company you are working with.
My personal opinion is and will always be to give the majority of income to those people who are helping you sell. Marketing costs of 40% to 60% are not uncommon for many companies during startup and for the first few years of their existence. The companies that don’t make it past startup do not understand this aspect of doing business and this is one of the main reasons they fail. You cannot start a business and expect to make money immediately. You cannot get involved with affiliate marketing and expect to make money immediately. If this is your position, stop reading now and focus your attention on something else.
Don’t base your entire affiliate program decision on the commission percentage amount, but do make sure you are being paid a fair percentage. Ideally, you will want to get a first tier payout of 50%. With this type of structure you only need to make 2 sales and you will be at break even. This helps you, but it also helps you to recruit. Getting 2 sales is much easier than getting 4 and your prospects are going to look at this aspect of the program just as you will. Your goal is to get profitable as soon as possible and then take your profits and invest them back into your marketing and advertising.
Continue investing your profits back into your program until you are making at least $100 a month, then you can start keeping anything over the $100 and investing $100 in marketing and advertising. If you want to grow quickly, invest everything you make back into marketing and advertising for a full year. After a year, you should be making good enough money that you can pay yourself a nice salary and continue investing back into the program.
