When a newbie begins an online business, the temptation can be 
high to join most any affiliate program they see in the hopes of 
making extra money. Given the amount of products and services 
that newbies get presented with, and since newbies have a 
burning desire to make money fast, it is easy to see how the 
online newbie can get lured into joining a lot of affiliate 
programs without knowing if they should join them or not.
 
For the newbie, the danger in joining lots of affiliate programs 
is multi-faceted. Joining affiliate programs takes time, time 
the newbie could be using defining their USP, learning about 
getting targeted traffic, or learning other Internet marketing 
skills that will actually generate revenue for them. In addition,
the newbie who joins lots of affiliate programs in the hopes of 
making instant profits, is at risk of being disappointed when 
they don't make money by joining the latest affiliate program 
and that leads to yet further "unproductivity" and poor use of 
time.
 

So, what steps do newbies take to identify the best affiliate 
program(s) that matches their USP?
 
It will differ based on the goal of each newbie Internet 
marketer, but here's a small set of steps that are useful 
to start with:
 
* Define how the affiliate program's offering complements your 
  USP.
 
  You should be able to clearly map out what the affiliate 
  program's offering (product or service) will be useful to 
  patrons or visitors of your web site, list or customer base. 
  If the product that you will be promoting is something that 
  will be useful to you and people you sell or try to sell to, 
  it may be a useful affiliate program to join.
 

* Make sure that you fully review the product offered by the 
  affiliate program, use it, and make your own assessment of it.

  Don't promote a product from any affiliate program unless you 
  own the product yourself and love it. If you own and love the 
  product that you are promoting, you will be able to sell it 
  more effectively because your energy and excitement level 
  will show through in the deliver of your message to would be 
  customer. In addition, you will be able to list and explain 
  in detail the features of the product or service that the 
  affiliate program is offering.
 

* Make certain that the web site that sells the affiliate 
  program is set up correctly to sell the product, and sell 
  it well.

  The web site that sells the product of the affiliate program 
  should be professional in its layout, design, sales copy, and 
  delivery of the product itself. The web site should have a 
  mechanism to capture the names and emails of the visitors. 
  The web site should also have a strong auto responder series 
  in place to follow up with and sell the visitors of that site 
  on the product.
 

* Check to see if the affiliate program should be tracked with 
  cookies so that the referring web site will get credit for 
  each affiliate sale, even the sales that come as a result of 
  the auto responder series.

  If the affiliate program doesn't use cookies to track 
  referrals, do not sign up.
 

* Take a look to see if the affiliate program is two-tier so 
  that you can earn money from recruiting other affiliates to 
  that affiliate program.

  Most of the the noteworthy and professional affiliate programs 
  will be two-tier although there are some notable ones that 
  aren't, Clickbank being the most widespread. At the very 
  minimum, the affiliate program should offer some sort of 
  incentive to recruit new affiliates. If an affiliate program 
  is not two-tier, make sure that you determine whether or not 
  the product(s) being sold are professional and have good 
  conversion rates.
 

* Ensure that the affiliate program makes it easy to sign up, 
  complete with welcome email and full contact information of 
  the point person who can answer any questions.

  If the affiliate program isn't run by a third party like 
  Clickbank, then the affiliate program sign up form should 
  also ask for your EIN # or your Tax ID # for proper reporting. 
  For the business owner who has established a business identity,
  this is key for accurate bookkeeping. Some marketers have 
  gotten away from welcome emails to their new affiliate 
  partners because potential affiliate partners sometimes do 
  not want to give their name and email, they'd just like to 
  join and make money with no 'marketing' messages hitting 
  their Inbox.
 

* A strong affiliate program ideally should have plenty of help 
  tools including any or all of the following: real-time 
  tracking, solo email templates (even though I suggest writing 
  your own), graphics, banners, etc.

  For the newbie, the better the help tools, the easier it will 
  be for them to feel comfortable selling the product. In 
  addition, the affiliate program should offer follow up emails 
  to all affiliates offering help to sell more products as well 
  as relaying success stories of how other affiliates have made 
  strong sales numbers.
 

* Ideally, the affiliate program's affiliate links should be 
  unique to the affiliate but should also be structured so that 
  the link is distinctly protected from would be commission 
  thieves.

  The affiliate link ID should not be visible in the URL after 
  the customer gets to the sales page of the product in question.
 

For the newbie, the abovementioned steps will help mitigate 
wasting time and will maximize their time and efforts. The best 
affiliate program for the newbie is the one that satisfies most 
or all of these criteria and sells a product that meshes well 
with the newbie's USP.
 
Be humble, work hard, work smart.
 
Karl Augustine
Best Affiliate Program