High Paying Affiliate Programs, A Lucrative String For A Freelance Writer’s Bow There are many ways a freelance writer can add to their income including the promotion of high paying affiliate programs. The operative word here is high paying as there are several pitfalls to watch out for when entering the world of affiliate marketing and the little matter of commission payments is one of them! If you are not careful you can find yourself spending a lot of time promoting something that only pays peanuts! We’ll look a bit closer at this later, but for the benefit of those unsure of what affiliate or partnership programs are, here’s a simple summary. Basically, you promote someone else’s product or service and receive a commission on any resulting sales. You do this by placing a personalised link, which the product owner will supply, onto your web or blog pages or into articles you have written and posted around the web. Anyone clicking these links will be logged by the affiliate software on the sales page and any resulting sales will be attributed to you. None of this is difficult to do and usually the affiliate owner will supply full instructions on how to do it together with advice on promoting your links. If this has piqued your interest, fine, but there are a few issues you need to watch out for: 1. Check that the product sells for a reasonable amount. You don’t
want to spend a huge amount of time promoting something which sells for a pound or two and pays a paltry 10% commission! At least 20 – 25% should be your starting point. 2. Pay close attention to the payment threshold. Many affiliate programs do not pay out until a certain level has been reached. If this is set unrealistically high, you may wait years to receive payment. 3. Understand how payments will be made. One of the biggest
affiliate sites is Clickbank. It pays commissions by cheque in
dollars. No problem if you are a US resident, but for non-US nationals it means you have to pay a handling fee to pay the cheque into your own account. In the UK it is currently £10. Look for either direct bank transfer or one of the online payment processors such as Paypal. These are quick and easy services to receive and send money in different currencies. When you are ready, you transfer from your virtual account to your own bank account and in most cases there are no charges. 4. Before joining any program, check that you are dealing with a reputable provider. They ought to have been established for a while and carry a good product range. 5. Don’t promote anything you haven’t first tried yourself! If you are serious about making it in affiliate marketing, you must be comfortable with what you are trying to sell. 6. Only promote products which relate to your website, blog or articles otherwise you will be seen as a spammer and lose credibility. Keep these points in mind and you shouldn’t go far wrong. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of quality affiliate programs you can sign up to including this list of the highest paying affiliate programs covering creative and freelance writing.