A Newbie’s Guide to Affiliate Marketing – Part One

I have decided to start a series entitled A Newbie’s Guide to Affiliate Marketing. I’m not sure how many parts this will consist of as I don’t want to focus on too many points in one post. So we might as well get started!

Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing

So you’ve decided to take your chances with Affiliate Marketing and now that you have decided to take the plunge your asking, “Where do I start?” Part one of a newbie’s guide to affiliate marketing should answer all your questions on what you’ll need to get started in this game.

Step One

Setting up accounts that your going to need in order to get started. So lets start with deciding on a CPA company that you would like to work with. There are tons of companies out there to choose from, so what makes them worthy of your business? There are several questions that you should ask before deciding to work with a cpa company. Below is a list of questions to consider asking before joining a cpa network.

1.) How does the Affiliate Network Pay?

Does the affiliate network provide a wide variety of options for payment that will suit what you need or want? For example, do they allow direct deposit, paypal, or simply checks via mail? Now I recommend finding a company that allows direct deposit or paypal instead of via check for two simple reasons. You tend to get your money faster via direct deposit or paypal, and because of security. Receiving a check by mail can be bad for several reasons in my book. Checks can be stolen, lost, or can arrive late. So consider when signing up if receiving a paper check will be a problem for you or not and if so, you’ll need to find a company that offers direct deposit or pays via paypal.

2.) How often does the CPA Network pay?

This one is kinda obvious but its a question alot of new affiliate marketers don’t think of when signing up for a company. Now when I first started doing affiliate marketing I didn’t have a ton of money sitting around to invest into PPC campaigns, I started with a very small budget. Now alot of CPA companies pay once a month. That just wouldn’t cut it for me as I would spend my money within about the first week of the month and would then have to wait 3 weeks to receive a check to put money back into my ppc campaigns. I very quickly realized that I needed to be paid more often as the longer my PPC campaigns were down the longer I wasn’t making any money. So if you have money to spend and don’t need paid right away this may not be a concern for you, also alot of cpa companies say on their site they pay once per month however if you let them know that you have run out of money and they see that you are sending some traffic they will normally get you on a quicker pay schedule without much hassle. Normally twice a month. Most companies will not allow you to receive weekly checks until you have proven that your going to keep increasing what your making.

3.) Does the company provide a wide variety of offers and pay competitively?

Now, once again, while this seems like a duh question, its amazing at how many people skip this or don’t think about it when signing up for a new cpa company. Before signing up with a company find out (ask on forums) if they offer and pay competitively. And I don’t just mean tons of different niches. Find out if the company offers several different companies under a specific niche. For example, Lets say the company has payday loan offers. Do they have 2 or 3 offers under payday loans or do they have 10 – 15 offers under payday loans. Now you may be asking well why do I need that many. Well the simple fact is that some offers convert better than others, so by having 10 – 15 it allows you to maybe find an offer that converts better than if the network only has 3 offers. 9 out of 10 times when I look for an offer to promote under a niche it ends up being with a company that has triple the amount of offers than another cpa company has. 9 out of 10 times!

Now continue with the question, make sure your getting the best payout for an offer your running. Really even though you use the top tips to find a company to work with, its just that…Its a company to mainly work with. That doesn’t mean you should only stick with that one company. Sign up with several companies and don’t be afraid to go with the company that is offering the higher payout. Too many times affiliate companies will try and make you feel like your abandoning them when they find out your using another cpa network. Instead of feeling sorry, tell them they need to step up their game. Its amazing how easily they will raise payouts for you if they know your not playing games.

Okay, well thats it for the first part of this series and please remember to subscribe to our feed to continue making sure you get the next series when its released.

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