Many people are looking for ways to make money on the internet these days, and one proven method is to become an affiliate. Typically, this involves driving traffic to websites in exchange for small commissions either for each time a user clicks through to the target website, or for sales that result from the traffic that is generated. There are any number of ways to get web users to navigate to a site, but in most cases an affiliate will set up websites that are keyword rich in order to draw lots of search engine traffic. These sites are then linked to the target websites in such a way that the user is convinced to click through the link to the site offering the product or service.

When choosing affiliate marketing programs, there are several factors that should influence your decision, one of which is the start-up cost. You already have the website fees and development time that you’ll be investing in the project, so any setup fees that you’d have to pay to become part of an affiliate marketing program would just be more money you’d have to shell out to get started. Most programs out there don’t charge these fees, so it better be a dynamite program that you are guaranteed to make tons of money with before you consider paying fees of this type.

Another thing to consider is the number of hits it takes to make a sale, if the program is the type that only pays commissions on sales. The company behind the program should be able to quote you statistics about this, and if they don’t then you probably need to move on and choose another system. Likewise, if it takes many thousands of hits to generate a sale, you may not make very much money if any from the program and it’s probably not worth your time.

What kind of product or service is being offered? You must have confidence that the general public will want to buy what you’re marketing. Just as with brick-and-mortar sales activities, if you don’t believe in the product, you won’t sell many of them. And likewise, you won’t earn much commission.

Minimum commission payout is another aspect that can affect your decision. Often, affiliate programs will require you to reach a certain commission balance to generate a payout, whether it’s via PayPal, check, or another method of payment. This can be $20, $50, $100, or even more. The higher the balance, the longer it will be before you realize a return on your investment, so you have to factor this in.

And obviously, the commission rate is key to generating enough of an income for the program to be worth your time. If the payout is too small of a percentage, then even a healthy amount of hits and sales won’t bring very much of a return on your investment. Most programs will offer a rate of between 5 and 50 percent, but you should look for a rate you’re comfortable with.

These are just a few of the factors to consider when choosing an affiliate marketing program. As many pundits profess, the internet can be a vast wasteland, so weeding through the programs to find the truly great ones is important if you’re going to have a successful and profitable experience as an affiliate marketer.