How to choose good affiliate products to promote
An affiliate earns a commission for selling someone else's product through a personal link. If you pay for traffic yourself, choosing the right offer is your most important decision.
Where to find products
ClickBank and Digistore24 have affiliate marketplaces, and Amazon has its own program. Many creators and software companies also run their own affiliate programs.
What to check before you join
- Real commission: look at what's left per sale, not just the percentage.
- Sales page: it needs to convince people without you.
- Refunds and reputation: search for complaints about the product and its creator.
- Promotion rules: some merchants ban ads that use their brand name.
- Attribution: understand how sales are credited, such as last click.
How to validate the offer
- Search the product and topic in the Ad Library.
- See whether ads have been active for weeks and have several copies.
- Note the promise and the formats being used.
- Only then run a small test and measure your cost per sale.
The math that prevents losses
If your commission is $20, that's the ceiling for your cost per sale. Above it, you lose money. That amount is only an example: run the numbers with your own commission.
Prospect Spy helps with validation: it shows how many days each ad has been running and how many copies it has, so you can decide what to promote before spending on traffic.
Read next
- How to validate a digital product idea before you build it
- How to sell on Facebook and Instagram from scratch
- How to create ad creatives based on what already works
Frequently asked questions
Do I need my own product to be an affiliate?
No. You promote someone else's product and get a commission per sale.
Do affiliates have to run ads?
No. You can also promote through organic content, though it usually takes longer.
Is a higher commission always better?
No. An offer that sells well at a lower commission can earn more than a high commission that doesn't sell.