"What are the signs that a new affiliate is going to be a good one?"
I think the answer to this question depends on what you mean by a "good one".
For example, If you mean that an affiliate is good enough that you don't need any more, then I don't believe that any of them are that good.
I know the ultra-simple 3 step plan says "Recruit 5 affiliates" but why should you stop there? Do you seriously believe 5 "good" affiliates is going to provide you with an income you can retire on? That is just an initial goal to get you started if you don't want to get bogged down with information overload.
You never know when one of those might quit being a "good" affiliate for whatever reason. Maybe he thinks he has 5 good ones under him so he doesn't need to work anymore!
If you are training your affiliates to duplicate what you do will you tell them once they get X good affiliates they are set for life? Then what will happen to your income when your whole downline has enough good affilates and stops promoting?
If, however, you want to know when an affiliate is good enough to deserve your support and advice, then I would say they all are!
You should never neglect supporting one of your affiliates just because he didn't have the "signs of a good affiliate." Sure, you can and should give extra attention to the people who seem to be putting in an effort, but I don't believe there is any fixed formula you can go by to determine which ones deserve the extra help.
How would you feel if your sponsor gave more support to another affiliate and neglected you because you didn't make it past round 4 in E365 and didn't make the fast track bonus? By his formula you may not have the signs of a good affiliate. But someone who does fit his formula might not need the help, or might drop out after a month or so.
The only valid reason I can see for wanting to know if someone is a "good" affiliate is when evaluating advertising methods.
If you can determine that affiliates who sign up from an ad posted on a free online classified board have a higher success rate than affiliates who you recruit by sending a gift card via snail mail (or vice versa), then that could be valuable information that will help you decide where to focus your advertising efforts.
If that is your reason behind wanting to know if someone is a good affiliate then I think you should wait and gather several months if not years of data before you can make a statistically valid judgement of which advertising sources are more effective at bringing in "good" affiliates.
As for me, I am not that good a statistician and don't have the patience to make that evaluation. If you are and you do, please share the results with the rest of us ;)
I hope you feel this is helpful.
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"What are the signs that a new affiliate is going to be a good one?"
I think the answer to this question depends on what you mean by a "good one".
For example, If you mean that an affiliate is good enough that you don't need any more, then I don't believe that any of them are that good.
I know the ultra-simple 3 step plan says "Recruit 5 affiliates" but why should you stop there? Do you seriously believe 5 "good" affiliates
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