Affiliate marketing question - Should you join every affiliate program you can find or just a few?

There are many thousands of affiliate programs on the net that you can join. Every man and his dog is running one. But how do you decide which ones to join?

There are two trains of thought in this area. First you can take the scatter gun approach, which is quite popular on the net, and join as many programs as possible. This ensures that at least SOME of them will pay off. Well, that’s the theory.

The other alternative is to take the shot gun approach. Join some leading affiliate programs in just a few areas and put more effort into each one. Do some affiliate marketing research by reading as many articles on the subject as possible. This way you can narrow down your candidates.

Well, as always there are pros and cons to both but why not do what everyone else is not doing. It seems to me most sites are taking the scatter gun approach. For example: We have 3,000 affiliate programs listed on our site. We have the largest selection of affiliate programs!

Why not focus? Find your own niche. Find a particular area that you are interested in.

Example: Perhaps your interest is in selling rare papyrus from Egypt and you find there is only one affiliate program dedicated to this. You join. You focus your affiliate marketing strategies on this product. You are not thinking about selling papyrus from Egypt one minute and then long distance phone calls the next. With fewer products and services you are able to focus more energy and effort onto the products and services that you have a genuine interest in. You may even be considered an expert in this particular area because of your knowledge.

There are many webmasters doing just fine with their hundreds or even thousands of affiliate programs, but the market for the scatter gun approach now appears to be cluttered.

This is where the specialists enter. The new breed of webmaster that focuses on particular products or services. Alternatively your focus may be on one area, and selecting only the best-selling, highest-paying commissions for that field. Then you target your affiliates with high level affiliate marketing techniques. Now there is room for the specialist to succeed.

Target your affiliate programs.

Pick just a few.

Concentrate all of your time into marketing these programs - because you are so passionate about the product or service you are selling, you will drive more targeted traffic to your affiliate program.

Resource Box David McKenzie is the author of a new e-book titled “The Facts You Should Know About Affiliate Programs” Get a Free 5 Day Email Course http://www.1sthomebasedbusiness.com