• Digital River - https://www.regnow.com - specialises in software products including games, anti-virus and anti-spam titles.

Add all relevant programmes to list of those you gleaned from Search Engine(s).

Selecting Niche Affiliate Programmes

Be selective in your choice of affiliate programme. Don't just signup for all of programmes you have listed, visit each site and check each one out and make sure you "read each Merchant's terms carefully".

Here are some points for you to consider when deciding which programmes to promote:

• Commission rates - rates vary considerably, check them out to make sure get best deal possible.

• Commission type - does Merchant pay on a pay per lead, pay per click or pay per sale?

• Frequency of payment - most important. Payment frequency can be weekly, two weekly, monthly, quarterly - I've even seen six monthly.

• Minimum payout - what is minimum commission amount merchant is prepared to pay out on. You don't get paid until amount reaches that minimum.

• Cookie duration - cookies are set to capture your referral code and expire after a specific amount of time. Make sure you get longest time possible. Very few of your referrals will buy on first visit, you want enough time for your referral to visit again so that you get commission.

• Minimum traffic requirement - you don't want to find out that your account has been terminated because you aren't sending enough traffic to Merchant's site.

• Are sales tools available - it's in Merchant's interest to help you as much as possible. If they provide sales and marketing tools it makes getting started a lot quicker and shows that Merchant values their Affiliates.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. As I said earlier, check all terms carefully, then select and sign up for programmes which best suit your niche theme and you're ready to start promoting.

Copyright © 2005, André Anthony Niche Market Know-How

About The Author

André Anthony owns and operates Niche Market Know-How a resource for beginning Niche Marketers. Visit http://www.nichemarketknowhow.com today to find strategies, tips, tools, products and resources for effective niche marketing. Get his Niche Market Know-how Mini Course here: http://www.nichemarketknowhow.com/course.htm

So what's a Small Business Lone Ranger to do? Here are 6 tips:

1. Make a list of all tasks that don't require your specific expertise or talent (things like sorting mail, buying office supplies, and filing).

2. Make a second list of tasks that consume a lot of your time but are OUTSIDE your specific area of expertise (things like maintaining your web site or managing your business finances and accounting).

3. Determine how many hours per week you spend doing these tasks.

4. Determine what additional sales and marketing, or other business-building activities you would have time for if you didn't have to do these other tasks.

5. Estimate how many additional clients or sales you could generate with this extra time spent on marketing and building your business.

6. Make a decision to hire an assistant, bookkeeper, web site manager or whatever specialists are appropriate to handle these tasks. Determine what you can afford based on your results in Tip Number 5.

I know you're probably wondering how you'll be able to afford it. But really, we can't afford NOT to hire help. Unless we are satisfied with keeping our business small. And don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that — I've done it for seven years. But if you have a bigger vision (like I do now), then you need a team to help you make that vision a reality.

To start with, your team should include an assistant to do work that is not a good use of your time. This doesn't have to be a full-time employee; I'm starting out with someone just a few hours a week. You'll also want to get a bookkeeper and a CPA to manage your finances — they'll not only free you up from your accounting tasks, they'll also help you keep more of what you do make.

So take a moment to get a clear vision of what kind of business you want to create. And if that vision is larger than you can accomplish on your own, take six steps above to get a team to help you make it a reality.

(C) Copyright 2005 Debbie LaChusa