I have seen it a million times, especially from newer affiliates. They find two similar affiliate programs and immediately assume that the one that pays the highest commission is automatically the better affiliate program... not true! As an affiliate you need to look beyond the commission and evaluate the entire program. Yes, high commission are always nice to have but there are some things to look for that can make a high commission affiliate program practically worthless and a waste of your valuable time.

The first thing that you should look at is see how much the merchants are charging for their products. Merchants that pay a high commission is usually passing it off in the product prices. By boosting their prices up they make up for paying their affiliates high commissions by trying to get the customers to pay the bill. If the price is to high the customer will leave the merchants site and search for another merchant with lower prices. So you can promote the higher commission merchant to your hearts content. But if the prices are just to high for the customers you are simply wasting your time and effort on a dead cause.

Another thing to watch for is merchants that offer high commission but then have traffic leaks all over their site. It could be banner ads from affiliate programs they joined themselves, adsense ads posted all over, and even a toll free phone number for the customer to call in their order. Some merchants even offer discounts if they call in their order rather than placing their order online. Leaving you with nothing on the commission.

Now, if you go with the merchant that pays a slightly less commission but has much lower prices, and no traffic leaks then the customer is going to buy from them instead of the other merchant, therefore, giving you more conversions which will make you alot more money in the long run.

About the Author

Chet Brzezinski has been in the affiliate marketing and affiliate management industry since 1997. View more affiliate program related articles at any of Chet's sites below:
http://www.affiliate-program-review.com
http://www.proudmedia.com