In order to run a profitable affiliate program, some vital actions and choices need to be adhered to. For instance, there is need to promote a manageable number of products, and among other issues, it is also advisable to use the product first before recommending it to customers. Detailed explanations are as follows:

1. Avoid Too Many Programs At A Time:

To succeed in an affiliate program, there is a need to leverage the power of focus, i.e. after signing up for a product, the next thing should be to start promoting that product to a point where it can start generating good traffic and sales, before deciding to add another product. Trying to run so many affiliate programs at the same time will not permit the affiliate to carry out effective promotion of the crowded programs. This will doubtless reduce the earning potential of the individual programs.

2. Use The Product First:

As an affiliate marketer, having found a product you're interested in promoting, it is advisable that you endeavor to use the product yourself before recommending it to your customers; try to carry out thorough research about the quality of the product, and also find out if the company that owns the product offers good customer service and strong guarantee about their product. This is a good way to ensure customer retention or loyalty.

3. Promote Top Quality Products:

As an affiliate marketer, all efforts should be made to ensure that you recommend only products that are of top quality to your customers. On no account should your customers suspect that you're out to recommend inferior or high-priced product to them. If you try to be dishonest with them, it will lead to losing their trust in you, and consequently you lose their patronage; but on the other hand, honesty on your part will make them to be loyal to your offers, and that will see you making more money through repeat sales.

4. Choose High Paying Programs:

An affiliate marketer should look for a product that pays reasonable commission. A commission of say 20% to 50% on sales can be considered reasonable, but anything falling in the range of 5% to 10% might be too poor for consideration. Affiliates should settle down to search for products whose company pays what the affiliate deserves i.e. companies that place high premium on the effort of their partners, and who recognize the long-term benefit of referring a customer.

5. Select High Converting Product:

Another way an affiliate marketer can earn more money is to look for affiliate programs that have high conversion rate i.e. a program that turns a reasonable number of its visitors into buying customers. A site that has high conversion rate is generally considered as one with ability to convert at least 1 (one) out of every 100 customers to paying customers. To this end, the affiliate should have a thorough look at the company's website to see if its content is appealing enough to visitors, and also see if its sales page is one that could make a person want to buy.

6. Choose programs That Track Every Sales:

Affiliates should ensure they join affiliate programs that are capable of tracking all sales generated by the affiliate from all sources. A lot of affiliate program only have website-tracking software, which makes it possible for them to only track sales made directly from a website, thereby making the affiliate to lose commission on sales from other sources like: phone orders, faxed orders, mail orders and repeat orders from old customers. There is also the need to join affiliate program that use cookie-tracking, which makes it possible for affiliates to earn money on orders from customers who did not buy on their first visit to their product site, but did buy afterward.

7. Up-To-Date Sales Statistics:

When joining an affiliate program, an affiliate should ensure that the company can provide him with log-on information to their website, so as to have access to his affiliate sales data. This is essential because the sales data comprises vital information such as: click-through-rate, rate of conversion, number of sub-affiliate, current and previous sales total etc. These real time statistics will enable the affiliate to know the effectiveness of tools like text-links, banners and recommendations. With this kind of information at the disposal of an affiliate, he can ensure that his program is yielding optimum results.

8. Programs That Provide Promotional Tools:

An important attribute of a good affiliate program is the ability of its company to provide necessary assistance to the affiliate. The company should be one that realizes that its success is tied with the success of the affiliate, and should therefore provide the affiliate with services such as text-links, traffic generation banners and recommendation letter templates.

9. Join Programs With Good Reputation:

Before signing up for an affiliate program, an affiliate should ensure that the dealings of the company with its affiliates is not in any way questionable; for instance, the company should not be one that keeps the affiliate in suspense over payment of sales commission. If there is any doubt about the credibility of the affiliate program company, the affiliate is advised to carry out his own due diligence to ensure that the company is very professional before joining its program. For instance, the company should be able to provide good customer support services, and should be one that responds promptly to enquiries by customers.