Well, we’re finally getting down to looking for an affiliate program but you’re not exactly sure which kind you want to get involved in. Do you want to find one that’s free to join where you sell products for a company at a decent commission?

Do you want to join one where you sign up as a paid member of a company and get paid to recruit other members? Where will you make the most money? What’s going to cost you the least amount of money? What’s going to take the least amount of time?

Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are beyond the scope of this book because ultimately, it will all come down to advertising. If you use effective forms of advertising, then anything you promote, if it’s legit and viable, can be made to be profitable. So for the sake of making this evaluation as simple as possible, we’re going to assume that you are using the absolute best advertising methods. If you don’t know what they are, no problem. Just pick up my book on Internet Advertising Strategies and you’ll be just fine.

Okay, so we’re all set to promote whatever we decide TO promote. The $64,000 question is, how do we make that decision?

In order to do that, we need to know something about ourselves. If this sounds like a lot of psychological mumbo jumbo, it’s not. Think about it. If you really hate the thought of selling things, do you really think you’re going to be good at it? But, if you’re good with people and can talk somebody into joining a program with you, or if you have the kind of contacts where you can do that, then an affiliate recruiting program may be just the right thing for you. At least more right than trying to sell somebody some anti virus software or whatever your company sells.

So what you have to do is sit down and have a talk with yourself. Ask yourself what you really think you’re better at doing, selling things to people or selling yourself to people. Personally, my strong point is selling myself. I don’t really like products. As far as I’m concerned, a person either needs a product or they don’t and nothing I do or say is going to change their mind.

But, if I can show somebody that I’m an honest, down to earth person, then I feel I have more of a chance on “selling” them on the opportunity by selling myself. If I were the type of a person who could go nuts over a product and rave about it to the point where people would be lining up in the streets to buy that product, then I would sell products. But the truth is, with all the money I’ve made, which is considerable, I can count my product sales on one hand.

My point is, I know what my strengths are. I would never join a program like Sharesale and try to sell bulk email programs or whatever it is they sell these days. Yes, I did used to sell their products, or at least try to.

After you have figured out what your strengths are and that you either want to join an affiliate sales program or an affiliate recruiting program, the next step is to find one.

Finding one is easy. Finding a good one’s not so easy. If you look at any site’s sales page or home page, you’ll see claims that would make a grown man drool. Some of these claims are so outrageous that they can only make you laugh out loud. But some almost sound possible. Those are the ones you have to watch out for.

Regardless of the claims that a site makes, it all comes down to one thing. What does it cost and what does it pay? If you have that information, which most sites will give you somewhere in the FAQ section, then all you need to know is how to interpret that information. This is something that very few people know how to do. However, through years of study of various commission structures and programs, I can tell you pretty much within a few bucks, how much you’re going to make with any one particular program based on these three things.

1. How much the program costs monthly.
2. How much they pay in commissions for each level.
3. How many levels there are.

That’s it. That’s all you need. From these three things you can compute, using a very complex formula, about how much money you’re going to make based on the average number of people that the average affiliate marketer gets in any given month and how long those people stay with the program. Don’t worry, you’re not going to have to figure out the formula yourself. I’m going to give it to you.