How to Find the Best Affiliate Programs [in the Relationship Niche]

Looking for the best affiliate programs to promote your dating and relationship blog?

To do that you must look for the features that all the best affiliate programs share in common.

It will make life easier for you by saving you time and frustration.

And above all convert a higher number of affiliate sales…

…provided you set up the right strategies and apply the right techniques outlined in this blog.

However, realize that even after applying these tips, you will not know how an affiliate program will perform FOR YOU until you promote its products.

Also, I urge you to come to grips (actually I beg you) that affiliate products do not just sell themselves.

You MUST guide your visitors down the path from identifying what prevents them from gaining success.

From the PROBLEM (lack of habits, knowledge, strategies or skills) ==> to the SOLUTION (identifying the habits, knowledge, strategies or skills needed to gain success) ==> to the RECOMMENDED TOOL (the affiliate product that teaches them “HOW TO” master the skills to succeed)

And the best affiliate programs spend thousands of hours and dollars to help you guide your audience (market to your audience) down this path to close the sale.

These features below will help you identify the affiliate programs in the dating and relationship niche that do a solid job to help you convert visitors into customers.

10 Features of the Best Affiliate Programs in the Dating and Relationship Niche

1. High-Quality Sales Page

Nothing converts an affiliate sale better than a high-quality sales page.

Typically, the best affiliate programs in the relationship niche, spend lots of time and money to create this.

The page must convince the visitor who you send to it that the solution the product offers will end their misery and get them the reward feelings they seek.

Here are the top features and traits of the sales pages from the best affiliate programs I’ve promoted.

Top Features and Traits of High-Quality Affiliate Program Sales Pages

• Benefit-focused headline
• Actionable Sub-Headline
• Emotion-laden sales video with images and graphics that match the narrator’s story and lesson
• Text with visually appealing layout (each section has a different colored background to make them stand out one from the other)
• Identifies the visitor’s frustrations with lack of success
• Points out what they must do to get success (but without showing them how)
• Over delivers the value of the complete package of goods including bonuses (makes the price look small)
• Creates a sense of urgency (cost of your visitor not taking action right now)
• Creates excitement that the solution is just minutes away

The sales video becomes even more important to convert your affiliate sale if your visitor does not know of the product.

Let’s face it, many of the relationship and dating coaches out there are relatively unknown.

They just simply not well-known celebrities to the average person.

You must help them identify the problem they have, briefly explain the solution without telling them how to do it and then hand them off to the sales page which shows them the solution.

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2. 50% Commission Rate (or Higher)

For digital products in the relationship niche only seek front-end products (the main product, the first one they’d buy before any upsells) with at least a 50% commission rate.

Some products I promote offer 75%.

And some new relationship products even offer 100%.

3. Upselling, Cross-Selling of Other Products

Some of the best affiliate programs in the relationship niche offer upsells.

I get an upsell in about one in every 5 of the affiliate programs that offer upsells.

With DigitialRomance.com and BeIrresistible.com affiliate relationship programs, this amount to one or two upsells, giving me a total commission of $60-90 for one customer.

How do you know if an affiliate program offers upsells in their funnel system?

Two Ways Best Affiliate Programs in Relationship Niche Offer Upsells:

1) It should tell you in their affiliate dashboard

2) Or ask the affiliate manager (person in charge of the affiliate program) via email

And many of the affiliate programs I promote sell more than one product.

So, that means sometimes a visitor clicks through my links and buys a different product than the one I recommended.

This could also occur from a visitor signing up for the product creator’s newsletter too and purchasing from one of the emails sent them.

4. Affiliate Manager

Not all the best relationship affiliate programs have affiliate managers but many do.

They will make life easier for you.

I actually am messaging one right now via Skype as I do this post.

They can get you free access to the products to dissect and review them.

They could even offer you free bonuses to give away.

And affiliate managers become especially important when you notice a discrepancy in your affiliate commissions. (Sometimes there’s a computer glitch and you don’t get the commission).

The presence of an affiliate manager generally shows that the creator and/or distributor of the product takes an active role in marketing the product.

5. Top-Notch Affiliate Dashboard with Tools and Product Images

A few of the best affiliate programs I’ve found provide me with marketing data to help me convert sales.

What do they provide their affiliates?

Free High-Quality Tools and Content (Examples)

• High-converting keywords
• Demographics that tend to buy their products
• Marketing demographics for targeting audience in ad creation
• Email swipes (copy-and-paste emails to send to your email subscribers)
• Quality product images
• A private affiliate Facebook Group to ask questions
• Copy-and-paste text ads
• Copy-and-paste articles (although I would re-word them for SEO purposes)
• Power and trigger words list (attention-grabbing words related to the product)
• Sample headlines and phrases to grab attention

Again, when you see that an affiliate program in the relationship niche takes the program seriously then you can expect sales.

Typically, the best affiliate programs also spend thousands, if not millions of dollars running ads to know what combination of headlines, text, and images.

Their marketing team figures out what converts the coldest of traffic (visitors who don’t know the product and haven’t been warmed up to purchase).

6. Free Review Copy or Free Access to Site

As mentioned before, the best affiliate programs in the relationship niche I’ve come across, give you free access to the product.

Just email the affiliate manager or support team.

7. Free Customizable PDF Downloads with Your Affiliate Links

I decided to put this one under its own “bullet point” because it sets an affiliate program apart from the rest.

Not many I’ve seen do it.

It’s an affiliate tool but a rarity to find and a strong indication of a high-quality affiliate program.

These are downloads that you can download and then giveaway as lead magnets or offer as bonuses for an affiliate purchase.

Just make sure you read the rules on what you are allowed to do with them.

It makes it easier to sign up subscribers and you don’t have to do the work to create them.

On top of that, if you don’t find that amazing enough, when you download them you can place your affiliate links in them.

So, when your subscribers read them and click on the links inside the PDFs you can make sales soon after they opt-in to your newsletter.

8. Product Creator Active in Own Community

If the landing page is strong and the product creator is a dating and relationship coach plus takes an active role in branding themselves.

Dating Coach Evan Marc Katz illustrates an example of that.

He has built an enormous email list, maintains a blog with hundreds of blog posts, takes an active role in his social media and has created more than 150 YouTube videos.

Many single women who search the internet for relationship tips know Evan.

And thus, increase your conversions.

For many years. I could depend on getting an 8% conversion rate on cold traffic just from my product review of Why He Disappeared.

That’s high.

But even after Evan has dedicated more time and money this past year to personal one-on-one coaching, and less on marketing his affiliate program I’m still doing 4%.

Which is still high.

9. Long Cookie Duration

The longer the better, typically they last 30 days.

This means that if your visitor does not purchase right away but within 30 days you still get credit.

So, even if they click another relationship blogger’s affiliate links after and purchase, you still get credit.

Evan’s cookie duration is an unbelievable 365 days.

From one customer alone I made 4 sales which amounted to nearly $500 in commission because she kept buying all of Evan’s other products over the 365-day window.

10. Quality High Converting Newsletter

The previously mentioned cookie window proves useful when the affiliate program runs a high-converting email newsletter.

I’d recommend signing up for the affiliate program’s newsletters to see how what kinds of emails they send and how they promote their products.

Summary of the Best Affiliate Programs in the Relationship Niche

The relationship niche has quite a few affiliate programs you could promote.

But choose carefully.

Because you risk wasting valuable time creating content.

Don’t burn yourself out and demotivate yourself by losing precious energy on the wrong affiliate programs.

That’s why you should only promote relationships and dating products.

And the list of the best affiliate program features from this blog post will help guide you.