And let's see three other factors ...

4. Conversion rate

As I already said (a few times) it’s all about conversion, so this is one of the most important metrics (in fact, in my opinion is the most important one) which basically can tell you how much will you be able to earn.

5. Payouts

It may sound a bit strange, but you shouldn’t get too focused on this one. Why? Because, there are many other factors that will go into the final formula and you’ll have to analyze them as well. With that being said, here are a few useful questions that must be answered:

• what payment methods are they using?
• when do they issue the commission payouts? monthly? quarterly?
• is there a minimum earned commission amount that an affiliate must exceed in order for their payments to be issued?
• can you choose your own payment threshold?
• are there any geographical limitations?
  
  

6. Cookie life

The cookie life is the period of time within which the advertiser agrees to compensate you for a referred customer. Let me give you an example: if it is set at 48 hours and the customer you refer purchases 50 hours past the initial referral, you will get no commission on that sale. In other words: the longer the cookie life, the better.

More than 80% of purchases occur within 24 hours of the end-customer’s click on an affiliate link, but still, the cookie life is an important factor. In my opinion a reasonable minimum value for a cookie life is around 30-60 days. Needless to say, if you can find a good affiliate program with lifetime cookies even better …