So you’re sold on affiliate marketing as a viable business model. Now you need to find some affiliate products to sell.

Fortunately there are literally thousands (probably millions) of affiliate products to sell. The difficult part is choosing which products to sell as an affiliate.

I cringe at thinking how much time I’ve spent pondering the “which niche” and “which products” as an affiliate marketer.

However, spin this dilemma around and think about all the opportunities there are. Not too long ago, there were few products to promote. Now the choice is nothing less than awesome. But choice if often accompanied with having to choose. Not always so easy.

I’ve bombed with product promotions and succeeded. It’s the nature of this affiliate marketing business. Over time, I’ve figured out a few techniques for choosing products to promote as an affiliate. Actually, the techniques straddle the “which niche” issue.

5 Tips for Choosing Affiliate Products to Sell

At the heart of the matter is understanding that as an affiliate, you’re recommending something. This doesn’t mean you must always use every product your promote. However, you should have a decent understanding of the product and/or product-line.

1. Be interested in the product/service.

It’s my experience that choosing niches/markets in which I have an interest works best.

If you’re interested in your product line, you’ll be more motivated and sincere in your writing. That said, I write reviews for which I’m not passionate about, but have background experience in (online business incorporations is an example).

2. Choose products/services you used and like.

One excellent way to choose a product line or single product is go with products/services you’ve purchased and use. This is a no-brainer. It’s how I started websitetemplatereviews.com. I was running an offline business, built my own websites for that business with WordPress themes.

I did piles of research about themes and other website platforms (Joomla, online website builders, SBI! Etc.), tried several, and then built my own business websites. I learned a lot about themes and website platforms. I used several frameworks and knew them intimately. It was simple to write dozens of quality articles and reviews in this field. The result: A mid 4-figure review website (one of several).

3. Choose affiliate products to sell that you need to buy in the near future.

For example, if you’re washing machine is on its last legs, chances are you’ll do some research. Why not leverage your research and start a washing machine review website.

You can do this for every purchase you make.

4. Choose products that generate decent commissions.

Regardless, whether you choose based on tips 1 to 3 above, be sure to choose products that sell well and provide you a decent commission. Generally, more expensive products offer higher commissions, especially with physical products (hence the washing machine example throughout).

That said, I promote many digital products that provide a $10 to $40 commission (i.e. WordPress themes). The volume of sales make up for the lower commission amount.

Note that physical product commissions are usually a much lower percentage, but then they convert better.

Whenever possible, look for recurring or lifetime commissions. What’s the difference?

Recurring commission is on products that people pay monthly fees to and you earn a percentage on each month’s fees. Recurring commissions can be found for membership sites and web-based software services or other services where customers pay a monthly fee.

Lifetime commissions are when you earn commissions from referred customers on every product they buy from a vendor for their life.

For example, if you refer someone and they sign up to the vendor’s email list, then buy a product in 4 months, you get the commission. If they buy another product in 13 months, you get a commission.

5. Choose products that sell well.

You can’t always trust the conversion rates reported. Therefore, you may have to do some testing. I’ve set up pages for products that didn’t convert well. It’s part of the business. When you find a highly converting product with a decent commission, promote the absolute heck out of it.

Note that major brands of physical products generally sell well. Amazon as an online retailer is also great (but commissions are low).

1 Tip about making money as an affiliate:

When you find a product that generates commissions, then do a huge push on your promotion. Get creative with your promotions. Create a foundational pre-selling page or a web of highly converting pre-selling pages and direct all the traffic you can to those pages.

It’s better to have a few big earners than dozens of promotions that don’t generate much income.

Next, discover these affiliate marketing for beginners options or click here to get the Definitive Guide to Affiliate Review Websites.