Many of you will already have a website, maybe an email list and maybe even your own product.

The question is, how can you leverage these resources in order to maximise your income, and ideally, put it all on autopilot?

Joining appropriate affiliate programs and promoting them to your visitors can provide a nice boost in your income whilst adding value to your readers.

There are a number of things you should consider when joining an affiliate program.

1. Is it something that your readers or visitors would be interested in?

Obviously, if you have an Internet Marketing site then its not much good promoting health products to them. But if you promote products that compliment your existing products and niche then you can be on to a nice little earner. However, you may not want to promote products that directly compete with your own, though there are times when this is a good thing to do, particularly if you have exhausted the buying urge for your product with your list.

2. What does it pay out?

There are some trade offs to be made in pay outs. You may prefer to have a program that pays out less, but has a higher conversion rate compared to a program that doesnt convert as well but pays more commission. The other trade off is the back end sales. Is there a back end to the product you are selling and do you get commission on those sales too?

3. How often does it pay out?

Does it pay out twice a month (like Clickbank)? Or does it pay it more infrequently? How does it handle returns and what guarantee does it offer? Does it have a minimum payout figure? All of these may influence your choice of program.

4. How does it pay?

This might sound like a strange consideration, but how does the program pay its affiliates? Are they paid by check, Paypal or direct bank transfer? Depending on where in the world you are based you may not have access to Paypal, so if that is the only method of payment then you will struggle to receive your commissions. If they pay by check and you are not based in the same country as the originating bank the bank charges may be crippling, particularly if you cant set the payout level. Ive seen programs pay out $20 by check to someone in another country whose bank was going to charge them the equivalent of $35 to cash the check!

5. Is the product value for money?

Some affiliate program managers over inflate the value of their programs to cover the affiliate payments. For example, a product may have normally sold for $50 but to cover the 50% commission, they bump up the price to $75 or higher. Its always worth considering whether you would buy the product yourself if you were your target customer.

And as I like to always over deliver, heres a bonus consideration:

6. Review the product yourself if you can

There have been many horror stories circulating the Internet where people have promoted an affiliate program to find that it has either been a scam, the software hasnt worked or the book has been complete hogwash. Ideally make sure you review the book before you start selling it to make sure you know you are offering both quality and value for money to your list. Your reputation is the lifeblood of your online business and you must guard it closely.

These six considerations will help you to pick an affiliate program wisely and to leverage your assets to increase your income.