How to Choose an Affiliate Stand-Alone Program

A stand-alone affiliate program is where a company chooses to take care of its own affiliate program. This can be a very lucrative venture for a company, because they can keep a larger portion of the profits. As you will soon see, for the affiliate, you are relying almost blindly on the business ethics of the company.

The company will use their website to advertise their affiliate program. If the affiliate program is offered through an affiliate brokerage firm it will be so indicated. If not, and it is a stand-alone program, you will find the information about the program under their "affiliate" link.

Before joining, I would advise looking around the website and checking the following:

1. Check for quality of information (are there spelling errors, are photos present, is the information current, etc.).
2. How old is the website. The newer the website, the more cautious you should be in joining the program.
3. View the contact information for the customer. If it is not available or hard to find, you should not rationalize why it is not there, accept the fact, and begin looking for another program.
4. Make sure the website is not a shell. A website is a shell, if it has a home page, contact information, and a page that says "more information coming". If you see this, click away.

However, if everything seems legitimate, it is time to take a closer look at the specifics of the program. The specifics of the program, may not include the commission structure, but instead will be found in detail on your stats page after you have joined.

In most cases, I have clicked away from this scenario because more times than not, the payout threshold are usually huge. If you are just starting out in affiliate marketing, realize that sales are not going to be coming fast and furious. Bottom line, you do not want to be waiting a long time to receive a paycheck. Case in point, I just received a payout after two years. No, I backed out of it after six months, they just lowered their payout threshold.

In my opinion, when you are first beginning, it can be just too easy to get discouraged over the results or I should say, lack of results, and decide in a moment of frustration to quit the program. Maybe the company is hoping for this turn-around, maybe not. Nevertheless, the end results is still the same, the company keeps the total profit from the sale. (Tip: Look to see if their program is in an affiliate brokerage firm. Many times, the payout threshold is lower).

If everything looks good after all the checks and balances, you will need to give the company the same information that you would give to the affiliate brokerage firm. Just make sure that the page is secure before entering any of your personal information.

With a stand-alone affiliate program you will not have a third party telling you that the company is not paying their bills, and to remove your links. Instead, you must rely on the company’s business ethics.

This means, if the company is having trouble paying their bills you may have these three possible results:

1. You will not be paid.
2. They will pay you with a check that bounces.
3. The company’s payout date changes and/or the payout threshold goes up

You must do your due diligence on the program before joining. If it slips your mind and you join, still check the program out. It will save you a lot of time, grief and lost revenue.

To conclude, many stand-alone programs are honest with their affiliates. However, there are some bad eggs mixed with the good. This is why it is important that you, the possible affiliate, do your own due diligence on the company. This means, doing a Google search on the company to see what affiliates and customers are reporting about the company, and checking the Better Business Bureau.