Where Do I Find Companies & Products to Promote?

What types of companies actually pay people to promote their products and services?

Almost any company with a product or service to sell has an affiliate program.  This area is filled with endless possibilities because every day more and more companies are realizing the benefits of having affiliates promote their products and services so they're implementing affiliate programs into their marketing arsenals, if they haven’t already.

Some of the biggest companies in the world use the force of affiliates to create increased profits for them. Here are just a few well known companies that know just how smart it is to recruit others to promote them and pay them good money to do so.

 

  • Nike
  • Microsoft
  • iTunes
  • Progressive Insurance
  • Walmart
  • Amazon

And that’s just a very small list. There are companies everywhere from small online only businesses all the way up to Fortune 500 companies and bigger who will gladly pay a commission (and good ones too) to promote their products and refer sales to them.

There is almost no field, at least that I know of and I work daily with affiliate programs, that doesn’t have tons of companies willing to pay someone in some form or another for promote their products for them.

Where can I find products to promote?

Affiliate programs are not hard to find, especially online. Here are some ways you can find programs to promote with very little effort required.

Website Searches – You can easily do a search on the Internet for companies in a specific market that have an affiliate program. For instance if your market is dieting, simply do a search with words like “dieting sites with affiliate programs” or “dieting affiliate programs.”

Visiting Sites You Already Know and Shop At – Do you have a particular website or company that you love to shop with? If so, head to their site and check to see if they have an affiliate program. Chances are they do.

Affiliate Networks – This is probably the most popular There are a ton of sites which specialize in nothing but affiliate programs and those who wish to sell their products through them. Some of the more common affiliate networks include:

Clickbank – This site makes it simple to promote tons of products in hundreds of fields. Simply sign up and receive an ID that you can then use to promote products listed in their Marketplace. New companies are adding their products to Clickbank’s affiliate marketplace on a daily basis.

Clickbank also allows companies and individuals to sell their own products through them. They will manage the affiliate programs for these companies and individuals. This is great for the company, but it’s even nicer for the affiliate. No need to sign up for hundreds of programs and receive separate checks for each one. Instead, Clickbank pays affiliates their commissions on a regular basis. (At the time of this report writing they had recently implemented the option of weekly direct deposits of commissions.) You also have the option of getting paid bi-weekly, semi-monthly and more.

Other popular affiliate networks include:

Share a Sale

Linkshare

Commission Junction

Mom Affiliate Network

Finding affiliate programs to enroll in and promote is not difficult at all. As a matter of fact, it’s probably the easiest part of the whole process.

 

How do I know which products are the best to promote?

We’ll make this very easy for you and just get straight to the point. The following one thing is the biggest determiner of whether or not you’ll convert clicks into sales in an affiliate program – YOUR MARKET!

You have to have a market that is interested in the types of products you are promoting. For instance, you will do no good promoting chocolates to a dieting market or engagement rings to married couples. You must do your research and know your market before determining which types of products will appeal to them.

Let me make this clear because it could mean the difference between success and failure as an affiliate marketer if you get it wrong. Don’t forget this basic but crucial fact:

 You MUST know your target customer in order to successfully promote products and services they will actually buy!

Would you recommend a dating service to your spouse? I don’t think so – or at least I hope not! The same goes with affiliate marketing. Suggesting products your market has no use for will get you no where and fast. It just plain doesn’t make sense.

Now, that being said you could have an eager market and find the perfect product that could make their dreams come true, only to find the product stinks. So, how can you tell if the product really lives up to its name?

Some programs, especially those listed in Clickbank, will actually give you statistics of how well their program converts lookers into buyers. If you have access to these stats use them to help determine if it’s worth signing up to promote the product.

Another thing you can do is purchase the product for yourself. If it is what it says it is, you’re good to go. If it isn’t or you find it’s not worth the investment for whatever reason, you know you probably shouldn’t promote it.

Lastly, read reviews on the product or ask others who promote it how it does. There aren’t many products out there that you can’t find a review for online. Take the time to search for reviews of products from various sources and take the writer’s thoughts into consideration before jumping into an affiliate program you’re unsure of.

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