Many people want to make money with affiliate marketing, but they find it hard and confusing. That’s understandable. There are literally tens of thousands of products, possibly more, that offer an affiliate program. 

So how is a person to choose without falling victim to information overload?

When it comes to affiliate marketing, I am often asked …

“What is the best affiliate marketing product for me to promote?” 

In reality, there is no “best” product, but rather there are products that we feel passionate about or they pay very well or they’re easy for us to promote.

There’s no single “ideal product” for everyone, because it’s a little more individual than that.

Choosing the best affiliate marketing product for you to promote has to do with three important factors.

1. What your desire is. What products excite you?

2. What niche you’re working in.

3. The budget you have to work with.

Let me share with you three ways to determine how to choose a great product, one that fits you well and one that is easy to promote.

1. Promote products that are in demand. 

I know that sounds like a no-brainer and you probably didn’t need to read this article to get that advice.

But it’s worth saying because so many people try to promote a product that they feel passionate about but where the market is very small for that product.

And hey, there’s nothing wrong with that as long as you know what you are getting into. It’s fine if you feel passionate about it and you want to be like an evangelist for that product.

But if you’re in business to make money and you are trying to choose a product that’s going to sell well, you want one that’s in high demand.

You want something where there’s a very large, preferably hungry, market.

What that will mean is, it’ll be easier to reach prospective buyers, you’ll pay less for advertising because there will be a lot of advertising opportunities there, and you’ll actually sell more, faster, because of the demand.

Oftentimes, in-demand products pay a little bit less in commissions but that’s okay because it’s a great way to get your cash flow going when so many people already want to buy it.

I’ll use AWeber as an example.

So many people who are using an auto responder online use AWeber. A lot of people use Constant Contact, too, both of whom have affiliate programs that you can promote. But may people forget to promote these products because the product is so ubiquitous.

I would say the first step is to choose an in-demand product. That way you have a built-in market and a huge pool of potential customers to reach.

2. Make sure the product pays you well. 

By well, I mean that I try to go for $100 commission or more.

I’m not saying rule out products that pay you less than $100. I promote products myself that pay $20 per sale and do well. But, generally speaking, I use a $100 payout as my threshold.

Here’s why …

You’re going to work very hard to get every sale, no matter how big or small that sale is.

If it’s going to be hard work to get a sale to happen, why not make sure you earn enough that you can be rewarded for the effort you’re going to make?

After all, if you’re going to really promote a product and you’re really going to get behind it, put your heart and soul into it, you want to make sure that there’s a return on that investment of time.

And if you’re buying advertising,  a return on the investment of money.

Try to make sure it pays you well.

It’s very difficult to make a living online with affiliate marketing, or to make very much supplemental money with affiliate marketing, if you’re selling a $10 product.

Look at it this way – You would need ten sales at a $10 commission for every one sale if the product paid you $100 dollars.

Getting paid well is a very important part of affiliate marketing.

3 . Choose a product that can easily be advertised. 

Now, it’s true that almost any product can be advertised.

But what I’m talking about is, are there easy advertising avenues for you to pursue?

• Are there ezines where you can place ads or run solo ads?

• Are there blogs or websites where you can place banners?

• Is it obvious to you and easy to understand where to go to advertise this product?

If these things are true it will make your job as an affiliate marketer much easier.

You don’t want to choose a product where advertising it is going to feel like pulling teeth.

As much as possible, choose a product where you feel easily inspired about advertising ideas and you can clearly see accessible paths to go down for advertising that product.

You really want to be able to see the advertising opportunities pretty quickly – and by pretty quickly, I mean you should be able to figure out in half a day or less where you want to advertise.

Summing things up, remember to:

1. Choose a product that’s in demand because that gives you the broadest possible market.

2. Choose a product that pays you well because when you do make a sale, and you will, you’ll be highly rewarded and that will make earning a profit easier.

3. Choose a product where the advertising opportunities are obvious to you, where it’s easy to understand where to advertise.

You know, business online can be hard or it can be simple.

I’m a big believer in keeping things simple.

If you choose an affiliate marketing product in high demand that pays you well and it’s easy to understand where to advertise it and you can afford to advertise, then go for it.

Because finding all three of those things is a beautiful thing indeed!