Quick and Dirty Affiliate Program Tests (3 of 5)

Written on March 26, 2008 – 6:54 pm | by Wordpreneur |

Business Test #3: How Many Other Affiliates are There?

Assuming the affiliate program you’re interested isn’t brand spanking new, then it should have a track record. And if it does, I wouldn’t be interested as much in total sales but in how many different affiliates there are actually promoting the program.

Sales figures you really can’t verify — practically-speaking the merchant can pretty much give you any number it pulls out of a hat.

Heck, it can even fudge its total affiliate counts. But who cares? There’s a very easy way to see if other affiliates are actively promoting the program…

…Google.

Just do a search using the affiliate program’s keywords (merchant name, product name, service name, etc.). You’ll most likely find the results quite revealing. No, you won’t get accurate counts, not by a long shot, but you may get a good sense of affiliate activity. Or lack thereof.

Depending on how the merchant’s site is set up and how many regular non-aff links the merchant gets (such as regular press or media reviews), you may need to go a few pages before seeing increasing numbers of affiliate links… or not (which should tell you something).

Also, check the types of affiliate links that are being used. Small incidental mentions, tiny listings and links in larger directories, a small banner here or there… if that’s all you see, that’s not really too promising. Believe me: You can sense when affiliates are truly actively promoting, and they only do that obviously if there’s something in it for them.

The best indicator? Probably Google AdWords, those classified ad-looking links grouped to the side (and sometimes on top) of Google search results pages. Lots of affiliate marketers pay to run their ads in AdWords, and if any appear on those merchant keyword searches, the program’s in play… and playing sufficiently well for affiliates to actually spend their own money on advertisements.

This test is useless, of course, if a program’s just been rolled out and you’re on the ground floor. But for everybody else, the search is a must-do..

NEXT: Part 4 of 5 – Where are They Going?

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