Seriously.

Look very carefully on the image, notice what’s Bush face made of?

(Art by Jonathan Yeo.)

Wanna save namewee? make something similar on our prime minister and make yourself famous.

Ali from everybodygoto.com wrote about consideration points before joining an affiliate program and which affiliate program to promote – both are good readings and i recommend every newbies to go read it.

While the post is full of insights and helpful tips, it might not be right for everyone nevertheless. so here’s my take on the same subject… perhaps you can mixed up a little from both and have your own version.

1. Ignore the niche market theory

Yes, i knew i just made a controversial statement.

Almost every Internet marketing guru talks about finding a good niche with little competition and be a big fish in a small pond (yeah, right?). But after three years plus in the business, the so-call cash-rich online niche market is just another ‘penis-enlargement-kinda-myth’ for me.

I’ll explain why:

When there’s a niche, it means there’re little audience in the pool – when there’re little audience (hence, little money) in the pool, there will be minimum merchant promoting their products online – hence, as an affiliate, it’ll be tough to get a (more over, reliable) merchant.

Secondly, when there’s a niche – where there’s very little competition, high chances are others already explored about the market and found out that there’s little money to be earned there and moved away – which explains why there’s little competition. (com’on, the Internet is such a big space and do you think you can find a good niche market with just two days of keyword research?)

Unless you’re creating a niche market of your own, aka making and selling your own products (a good example: Danny’s titanium rings ); if not i would just recommend you to stick with the market with moderate or even high competition. from my experience, that’s where the money flows around.

2. Do people buy the product online?

There are certain things people (well, at least most of them) just like to search, but not buying them online – inflatable boats for example. it’s irrational when you judge the market solely based on the numbers from keywords research. common sense works, people who’re searching for laser cutting machine are most probably students or employees working out on their reports – com’on they aren’t going to buy the $20k mahcine online from you!

If you don’t have common sense or you need more figures to support your thoughts, MSN’s ad center labs ‘Online Commercial Intention detection‘ is a very good place (so far the best) for the detailing job.

As described by in MSN’s own words,

Microsoft adCenter detect your customers’ intention to purchase products or acquire information. for example, if a customer searches for LCD monitor, it is likely that he or she wants to purchase an LCD monitor; therefore, the online commercial intention is strong, with a confidence level greater than 0.5.

Webpage searches display two levels of commercial intention: informational and transactional.

The Online Commercial Intent (OCI) demo calculates commercial intent on a scale of 0 to 1. Any site whose score is greater than 0.5 is considered to have commercial intent.

However, some websites that have commercial intent might produce a score of less than 0.5. If you feel that this is the case with your website, we encourage you to contact us to help improve our scoring mechanism.

3. Affiliate manager’s quality and appreciation

How helpful is the affiliate manager shows how serious is the merchant’s attitude on their affiliates. does the affiliate manager answer your questions properly and support you in making more sales? do the merchants strike their best to improve their website conversion rate? do they show appreciation on your work as an affiliate?

We live on the products we are selling and we work our ass damn hard to pull sales – our efforts should be appreciated. so if you’re dealing with someone who take your effort for granted, maybe you should start searching about better alternatives in the same market. i’m sure other serious merchants are more than happy to gain more sales.

4. Avoid merchant with difficult payout process

I don’t deal with any merchant that tends to drag the payout time for their affiliates.

PayPerPost for example, is a definite ‘No-no’ for me – to earn $15 for a PPP blogger signup, you’ll have to lead a blogger to sign up with PayPerPost, get their blog approved in the system, bid and get a writing job, complete their first sponsored post, get that approved and paid after 30 days – and only then, you’ll get your $15 commissions. A single signup process might just drag you for 6 months easily – i’m sorry, but it just doesn’t seems fair and right to me.

5. Motivation & Interest

You have million of products to choose from – pick something you’re interested in, pick some topics that ignites your passions. if you’re into outdoor activities, promote about outdoor camping gears, fishing rod, outdoor wearings, and maybe alaska rafting tour – dont go for the Apple’s iPhone just because everyone’s talking about it.

Affiliate business is about making money, but it can also be fun and interesting. right?

Now, what’s your opinion on this? what are the keypoints you’ll be considering before picking up an affiliate program?

p/s: Ali, i hope you dont mind that i ’steal’ your post title… this show your post’s inspiring.