Affiliate branding 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 might 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 may 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, thats 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 selling research by
reading as many articles on the subject as possible. This way
you might narrow down your candidates.

Well, as always there are pros and cons to both but why not do
what all the people else is not doing. It seems to me most sites are
getting the scatter gun approach. For example: We have 3,000
affiliate programs listed on our page . 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 script dedicated
to this. You join. You focus your affiliate selling strategies
on this merchandise . 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 might even be considered an expert in
this particular area because of your information.

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 can 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 promoting
techniques. Now there is room for the specialist to succeed.

Target your affiliate programs.

Pick just a few.

Concentrate all of your time into selling these programs
- because you are so passionate about the item or accomadation you
are selling, you will drive more explicit visitors to your
affiliate program.