Being A Forex Affiliate Marketer

Forex is one of the most lucrative industries that heavily rely on affiliate marketing, resulting in good deals, clean operation and most importantly – more money in the bank.

How does affiliation work in the forex industry? There are many affiliation deals out there, but they all follow the same guidelines – CPA (cost per acquisition), CPL (cost per lead) and revenue share obviously take up the bulk of things, but unlike other industries, CPL and CPA are much more prominent than their rev-share brethren.

The reasons for this lie in the way forex brokers operate. Forex brokers usually prefer CPA deals due to the high value of each acquired trader and the fact that this is an ongoing service that does not end with one purchase. Compared to other products such as gaming, traders mostly cover their cost to the broker as soon as they make their first deposit, making revenue share deals much more expensive for the broker. Furthermore, forex brokers are generally lead harvesters, meaning that they acquire a large number of leads through their various media-buying efforts and then process them via their sales department, which is usually made up of a multi-national team of guns-for-hire - sales people in the forex industry tend to hop from one broker to another quite frequently. It is not necessarily bad, but definitely of interest. Therefore, leads are definitely interesting to forex brokers; especially if they are of good quality.

What are considered to be good quality leads for forex? Quite simply, forex companies will be very generous if you can provide traffic from Western Europe and Japan. There is an abundance of cheap forex traffic from many Middle-Eastern and African countries, but the amount of money needed to spend on specialized salesmen as well as the cultural differences (which make it hard to come to an agreement with the client) make it a bit more expensive for forex companies.

North American traffic is problematic. Due to strict US regulation, most unregulated forex brokers will not accept US traders (at least officially. You can always count on someone cutting corners), making it simply not worthwhile for a forex broker to handle.

However, even with traffic from the right location, we need the right people as well. I stress the word “people” because I believe that this is the point where the term  “traffic” simply won’t cut it anymore. At this point we’re considering a person’s habits, age, preferences, and genuine interests – a much deeper understanding. The most successful affiliates I know make this distinction, as it serves the long term goals of every business – a healthy and mutually respectful relationship with your audience.

Back to the point – who is the person that wants to trade forex? There are mainly two profiles: Men aged 18-27 and men aged 36+. The psychological reasons as to why these two age groups share such an interest in forex can endlessly debated, but suffice it to say that the younger group is looking to make a “splash” in the world (notice how many forex ads feature young and successful “businessmen”) and the older group is a mix of relatively wealthy men looking for excitement and others that are seeking a way out of debt. There are of course many women out there, but the strong majority is comprised of men.

So, if this is the type of traffic you are able to attract, which forex broker should you work with? Generally speaking, stick to the big ones that use credible technology (get yourself familiar with MetaTrader) and that have a significant online presence. Don’t be dismayed by angry traders that claim to have been ripped-off by a broker – it usually only means that they have a large user base, which means they can convert traffic sent their way. Remember, as an affiliate, that’s what you’re looking for. Furthermore, brokers with a large user base indicates that they have money to spend – meaning that there is less of a chance to experience delays in payment as an affiliate. Also, a large user base indicates that this broker knows how to work with affiliates.

Another aspect to consider is the type of broker. Most are market-makers, which means that trading is done within their systems, much like a trading simulation, with actual trading taking place. Other brokers work on ECN, which is considered to be more direct trading with an actual implication on the real world. This distinction is important, because many of the complaints coming in from traders refer to the fact that quotes on market-maker brokers are slightly skewed. This is a known fact to most traders, but it is something you should be aware of before sending traffic.

Last, but (definitely) not least, get to know the product you are trying to promote. I know this said again and again, but experienced forex traders can spot bullsh*t from a mile away, meaning that for you to enjoy the good deals offered by fore affiliation, you need to know about trading. I’m not talking candlesticks and pattern recognition, but know how the process works.

Good brokers to start with are eToro and 4XP. I’ve heard about some good people that worked very hard to make sure everyone was paid on time.

Stay tuned, we’ll be covering another online trading phenomena shortly – binary options.