How Many Affiliate Programs Can I Join, You Ask?
I've seen this question asked - How many affiliate programs can I join?
The answer is, as many as you like.
But is that really a good idea?
One of the pros of joining a lot of affiliate programs is that you have heaps of different products to promote within your chosen niche. Having a lot of choice is great, and being able to recommend all sorts of products to your readers may seem a cool idea at the time, but this definitely has its downsides.
Too Much To Keep Track Of
The more affiliate programs you join, the more websites, usernames and passwords you have to keep track of. If you do decide to join up with Amazon Associates, ShareASale and a bunch of others, be sure to keep a log of all this information.
Too Much Choice and Not Enough Focus
When you have a lot of products you can promote or recommend on your website, it's likely you won't put enough focus on just a few products. Writing one product review of one product, then never revisiting that same product within any of your other content is not likely to lead to many sales and commissions, if any. Generally you will need to promote or recommend the same product in at least a few posts top broaden your chance of getting buyers.
The Payout Threshold
Every different affiliate company will have a minimum payout threshold, which can vary depending on the method you choose to get paid. Often you will have to accumulate anywhere from $50 to $100 in your affiliate account before a payout will be issued.
If you're only promoting one product on one occasion from each of the multitudes of affiliate programs your have signed up for, chances are even when you get a sale, it won't be a high enough commission to get paid. It's possible you may only make one sale every 6 months from that affiliate working this way, meaning it could take a year just to get paid!
Focus On Just A Few To Start With
Just remember you can always expand your offerings at a later date, but choosing too many affiliate programs and products to promote in the beginning will simply spread you too thin and might just even confuse you.
Keep it simple. Choose one or two, maybe three at the most to begin with, determine the very best products that they offer and really focus on getting to know those products and recommending them. Start getting sales with just a few products from several affiliate companies and build that credibility and commissions before branching out.
Hope this has been helpful, particularly for beginners. Many of the posts I write are based on actual mistakes I made myself.
Wealthy Affiliate is all about sharing experiences and learning from one another.
To your success...
Recent Comments
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Thank you for more great advice!
I love how humble you are and how you share to spare others possible pitfalls.
You have a generous heart.
Susan
Thank you Susan. There are many others who have been gracious enough to share their mistakes that I've learned from as well, so I feel compelled to also share what I have learnt along the way. I still make mistakes, but hopefully not as many as I used to :)
Thanks! This is very helpful!
I started out with only two affiliate programs so I could get the feeling of how to work with them and now I have about 8....
Paulina
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This is excellent information. At the beginning, it is overwhelming and you just want to do everything, NOW! But taking it slow, realizing the growth will come, is great information to pass on. Thanks. !
I was exactly the same at the start.