Making the Most of Pay-per-Click Programs (continued, part 4)
3) What are their payment terms?
This is another factor that is often overlooked by webmasters. Many programs have strict criteria on when they make payment to their affiliates for click-throughs. Be aware of the minimum amount you must accumulate in commissions before they will mail a check to you.
Generally, a pay-per-click program should send checks when between $25 to $50 in commissions have been accumulated. Less than that is preferable of course, but be on the look-out for programs that require higher conditions to be met, or which combine high minimum with low per-click payouts.
For example, the ValueClick pay-per-click program generally pays $0.12 per click and pays you once you have accumulated $30. This means you need to send them 250 clicks before you receive payment. However, another program, yellowpages.net, requires $50 to be accumulated, and generally pays only $0.02 per click. Here, you would need to send 2500 clicks to them before you earned that first check, exactly 10 times more!
4) What are their terms and conditions of staying a member in good standing?
A common practice on pay-per-click program operating agreements is a statement that the program has the right to cancel a web site's membership at any time, without notice, if they suspect an affiliate of cheating. This is legally in their right, as this practice protects their advertisers AND legitimate affiliate web sites from cheaters. However, it is important that you know what guidelines they have set up, and how not to lose your membership if you are only using their program legitimately.
Many programs have clauses to protect themselves capping payments at a 3 or 4% click-through. This means if your site were to generate click-through rates higher than this, you would not receive payment for anything over their set percentage. Unfortunately, this also often means that they will open an investigation into why your account is generating such a high response. This is actually somewhat hypocritical of pay-per-click programs, since they penalize you for success. However, there are good reasons behind these guidelines.
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