Expectations - What is in it for the Affiliate Marketer

An affiliate marketer site could be a virtual shopping center for online buyers.

Possibilities for continued viability of this marketing tool at selling online is now even better than when it started years ago because of the innovations and continued refinements in merchants policies to enable them to cope up with the current marketing climate.

Commission scheme that is to be expected as a Marketing affiliate

Commission schemes vary from one merchant to another. The most popular practice remains to be the pay per click, pay per lead and the pay per sales. There are also variations, depending on the merchant, like multi tiered commission packages. Some merchants offer a combination of all theses variations.

With the pay per click/hit, the usual commission that a merchant affiliate receives is from $0.05 to $0.10.

For pay per sale, commission rates come as low as 1% to 50%. There are companies that offer a lifetime commission scheme. However Bear in mind that the higher the commission gets, the more effort is applied in the process of selling. Most of those that really offer very high commissions are based on cookie identification that usually does not work our very well.

To get the most out of being a marketing affiliate, you should choose merchants that offer not only the products that can easily be identified with your website, you have to maximize the benefits as well. To get the most out of being an affiliate, check out if the following are being offered or are practiced by the merchant. These will prove very valuable in running your business.

Use of tracking softwares

Find out if you can have access to a merchants tracking software. Cookie tracking will not be a reliable device for the affiliate as cookies can be deleted by the buyer. If the merchant uses cookie tracking, you have to find out the duration of the cookie. Join an affiliate merchant that uses the services of an ASP that is reliable and can track all kinds of sales.

Affiliate network services are also widely used by merchants. Affiliate network are safe in conflict resolutions, and payments on time.

Terms and conditions of payment

You also incur expenses as a marketing affiliate aside from the hard work that you put into the business. You should therefore be paid promptly.

Before joining a merchant, look into its terms and conditions for payment. There are merchants that could have terms that may not be favorable for you. In order to avoid finding your self on the other side of an undesired deal, look closely into the merchant's rules and regulations before deciding to advertise for him.

Things to look out for are:

Frequency of payment and rate of payout
The affiliate merchant must ensure that you get paid at the end of every month or a few days after that.

Payment for future sales
Most buyers do not make a purchase during the first visit. Make sure that you get credit for future purchases by buyers that you refer to the merchant. This is also one of the reasons why you should join a merchant that does not use cookie tracking.

These are the minimum requirements that an affiliate marketer should look out for when joining a merchant. Having these benefits and knowing what it is that the merchant offer can make affiliate marketing a more rewarding business for you.