When we make the decision to start a website in a particular niche, we usually go through the process of evaluating the money making opportunities. Choosing the right affiliate programs are an important step and goes beyond selecting the ones that pay the highest commissions. Here are some of the things I look for when evaluating programs:

Payment Schedule

Knowing when and how affiliate programs payout the affiliates is a very important elelment. Especially if you actively buy advertising / traffic to fuel the affiliate sales. You always want to look for the programs who pay more frequent, have a low payout threshold, and support fast payout options such as direct bank deposit, or paypal. This ensures that your cashflow can be better maintained.

Conversion Process

What is the action that triggers a commission? How many steps does a user have to go through? Are conversions triggered automatically? These are some of the questions you’ll want to find out about the program. I like to promote the ones that offer the easiest process for the user. Even at the expense of a high commission.

Market Saturation

When selecting the affiliate program to promote, I like to look for opportunities that give me the best chances of converting my visitors. I tend to stay away from the ones who everyone and their freinds are promoting, looking for newer programs. This usually equates to better payouts, conversions, and overall interest in your efforts by the affiliate program.

Summary

In summary, do you research on the affiliate programs before deciding to join or promote the program. Use some of the suggestions above as well as frequent an affiliate marketing forum such as Earners Forum where other affiliates disuss their issues and experiences.

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The domain name industry is a money making opportunity that is alive and thriving. Yes, it’s hard / almost impossible to get a one or two word dictionary .com but there are many other ways you can make money selling domain names:

Type-In Traffic

This is where you register typo-domains of popular search words and or popular websites online. You then put up a landing page of several different adsense type programs that show results and pay you each time a link is clicked or ads are shown. The programs are not typical in that they are designed specifically for parked domains. Ever type in a domain wrong and get single page site with alot of links? This is what I am talking about!

New Extensions

Every so often ICANN (The Domain Name Authority) opens up a new extension to the public. When this happens, you can get in on it early and register dictionary and/or popular domain names. Sure they are not .com’s, but over time most appreciate in value.

Expired Domains

These are domains that are not renewed and expire, every day registrars delete thousands of domains. With a few good tools and the knowledge, you can pick up some valuable domains that have pagerank, backlinks, and/or listings in authority directories (DMOZ, Yahoo, etc…). Once picked up, you can sell them of domain name forums where people actively buy and sell domains.

In summary, these are just some of examples of how you can make money with domain names. The industry is huge, you should do some research if this interests you. It’s easy to learn and there is not much time or resources needed to be successful at it.

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