Finding a good product to sell when you first start affiliate marketing can be difficult, but it’s important to your success. There are thousands of products to choose from, and the competition amongst sellers can be fierce.

Finding a strong niche, along with a relevant, high value product that actually converts readers to buyers, is potentially the most difficult part of affiliate marketing, and ideally you want to have a range of affiliate products to offer, of course, not just one. Keep the following points in mind when choosing an affiliate product.

Disclosure: Links in this post (and anywhere on The Savvy Solopreneur) may be affiliate links. Find out what that means here.

Find something that interests you

Choose a niche you love, and that has plenty of different products that you also love (so you can promote them authentically). Since you’ll be spending a lot of time on your blog, website, and social media streams, build them around something you like that could also be profitable.

A good niche will have multiple products available. Give your customers some choices. Whether you’re selling health and wellness products, designer clothes or business training, give your audience different options to choose from. One product won’t suit everyone.

Check out the competition

There will be others trying to sell the same products as you. Search online and see how stiff the competition is. Most affiliate programs have a metric that describes how well a product is selling. Ideally, you want to find some products that are selling well, but have minimal competition.

Think about the timeframe

Based on the level of competition, create a timeframe for success. Avoid picking something that requires more time and effort than you have. Look at how long it will be before you get a payout. Is there a minimum payout level or other conditions that will delay payment? Some affiliate programs pay out even if your earnings are just $1, others won’t pay until you have $50 or $100 in your account.

Check out the sales page

Even a fantastic product is difficult to sell without a great sales page. Though it’s possible to create your own sales page, it’s easier to send prospects to one provided by the company that creates the product. Ask yourself if the page looks professional and makes you interested in owning the product yourself. This is one of the things that will increase your conversions.

Look at the payout

How much will you be making per sale? How many sales do you estimate? Some products sell for $10, while others can sell for over $1,000. The commissions can range from 1% to 75% or more. Selling one or two $1000 products a month with a 50% commission sounds good, but is actually nowhere near as profitable as a hundred sales a week of a $10 product at the same commission.

Does the product have staying power?

Some products continue to sell over time, while others fizzle out quickly. A good passive income product won’t require you to rebuild your marketing machine each year. There are products that have been sold for many years in the exact same format.

Some companies also offer lifetime commissions on memberships, so if they offer a membership that people tend to stay in for years, you’ll continue to earn a small (or even quite significant) passive income on just one initial sign-up, for years to come.

I’ve found this is the case with products I’ve promoted such as the Freelance Writers Den, the White Label Perks monthly membership (which provides content for bloggers in the online marketing and personal development niches), or the CoachGlue VIP membership (which offers monthly done-for-you content for coaches to customise and use with their coaching clients).

Evaluate your results

Any decent affiliate product site will allow you to evaluate your web traffic. If you’re getting others to come to your affiliate sales page, but no one is buying, you either need a new sales page or a different product.

It’s possible that those who visit your site are looking for information, rather than looking to make a purchase. Find a way to entice those who are coming to your site, but aren’t clicking on your links.

Choosing good products is the first step to becoming an effective affiliate marketer. A good product makes it much easier to start making affiliate sales and be successful long-term.

If you’re brand new to affiliate marketing, you might want to check out our free blog series all about affiliate marketing.

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