Today’s post aims to highlight the huge money-making opportunities to be had through the effective promotion of financial offers through dedicated advertising campaigns. To better illustrate the arguments put forward we shall be concentrating on the OspreyFX Affiliate Program as a case study and paradigm.
Boosting their income and seeking ways to achieve this is a fair and common goal and aspiration for all expert bloggers on financial and trading issues. And whilst the lucrative potential is there, many fail to reach that potential because they mistakenly rely solely on ad networks, such as Google Adsense in order to monetize their blog. The obvious problem with this approach is that such networks offer very low payouts to blog owners, whilst keeping the maximum share of income for themselves.
The smart way to overcome this hurdle, if you are a blogger on trading and finance therefore, is to keep away from ad networks and embrace affiliate marketing instead as your preferred monetization method. This makes perfect sense as, especially in the field of forex trading, the payable commissions far exceed the revenue share you would ever be attributed to by an ad network.
Therefore, to help you embark on the forex affiliate marketing bandwagon, the purpose of this post will be to briefly present how forex affiliate marketing works, while also pointing out its obvious advantages. To better illustrate the case put forward we shall then concentrate on one specific example of such a program, namely OspreyFX’s affiliate marketing scheme. Choosing this particular program as the illustrative case study was based on our evaluation of it, since we believe it poses an interesting and potentially highly lucrative option for any forex blogger who decides to join it.
As uncovering opportunities for further growth and enhanced profitability is a noble and common goal, please feel free to share any experience you might have had with this particular affiliate program, offer your comments, even if they contradict with your own views presented here and of course suggest other programs that also provide solid options for lucrative opportunities.
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Before we cut to the chase an advance notice that this will be a fairly long article as the goal is to give you a full account of the OspreyFX affiliate program, the details of how you can join it and why it is a good idea to do so, while also offering our view on how favorably or not it compares to other similar programs on offer. The end target is to help you form a valid and solid opinion if joining this program is worth your while and suits your needs. So, without further ado, let us sail off...
Contents
It is an undeniable truth that the majority of affiliates choose to operate in the financial niche market of the affiliate spectrum because this segment is rightly considered to hold the most potential for profitability. Besides this obvious advantage however, what lures affiliates in are also numerous other positive aspects of the endeavor. Let us showcase a few:
Higher payments in the range of double or triple the profit than in other types of affiliate programs, since when performed diligently forex affiliation stands to get you up to 60% of the broker’s profit.
Despite the several obvious advantages however, there are also a couple of challenges or down points you should be aware of, that you should be prepared to effectively tackle:
Having identified the main advantages and disadvantages, let us now overview some of the most current strategies, whose employment is highly likely to lead you to forex affiliation success:
A crucial step towards forex affiliate success is the effective recognition of the audience you should be targeting for this vertical. A likely mistake you could make here is assuming that the target audience comprises mostly traders, stock market analysts, speculators and people who are into real estate and other similar fields. Such an assumption is plain wrong and would send you barking under the wrong tree. On the contrary, what you should be aware of is that the forex trading audience is very similar to the audience of gambling and betting sites, as well as online gaming. Essentially these are everyday people, usually in the 25-45 age group, who are in the lookout for new and quick ways to make some money. Usually they already have a primary source of income, enabling them to fund a trading account, but their primary income is not enough or doesn’t satisfy them, so they would be interested in trying out forex trading to supplement their income in their free time and improve their overall standard of living.
At start-business-online we are great proponents of forex affiliate marketing programs and have great experience and expertise in this niche. This is why we have recently posted our very own guide to forex affiliate programs specifically detailing why and how they could turn into very lucrative opportunities. Check it out to find out more.
Having covered the basics of forex affiliation in the previous section, let us now get down to real business, and discuss how serious money can be made through forex affiliate marketing!
As already mentioned above, when it comes to the affiliate marketing industry, the forex and CFD affiliate segment is by far the most profitable. Therefore, it would be safe to infer that if you do enter the forex affiliate domain and are unable to capitalize and monetize on your referrals, you are clearly doing something very wrong!
In fact, provided you choose the right partner forex and CFD broker, whose affiliate program comes with decent payouts and flexible remuneration arrangements, you stand to make thousands of extra income each month if you use your skills and effectively reach out to your audience and followers.
If you have tried and failed or want to be better equipped before you embark on your forex affiliate journey, here are some essential steps and clever tips that will allow you to maximize your potential earning ability and reap the full benefits that your affiliate marketing endeavor can offer:
It is not uncommon for affiliates to be able to creating appealing landing pages that effectively lure in traffic, only to fail dismally into actually converting their users. This is because almost everyone can simply share content and pages, but affiliate success needs something more. Successful affiliates are those who can prove to their audience and convince them that they not only know what they are talking about, but that also they have something new to say and that they are saying it better than others. In short, building strong relationships with your leads is crucial and this strength and trust can only come if you manage to portray yourself as a guru, a true expert, a credible and trustworthy source of information and mentorship. The content you post and share should not simply be appealing to the eye and catchy to attract people in the first place, but also have essence and be of high quality, including expert information that will sway your followers to act upon your recommendations and endorsements. Positioning yourself as an expert and guru in the trading industry or specific aspects of it may sound a daunting task, but it is perfectly attainable if you follow the following steps:
Your affiliate traffic will love you and end up converting if they feel that you provide value to them. The key to opening this gate is convincingly coming across as a trusted, authoritative and expert source offering insightful, useful and credible trading advice, reliable information and smart tips. An aspiring trader who wants to enter the trading market but doesn’t know how to go about it or is weary of potential pitfalls, should be able to see in your advice and tips the sure way to proceed, the confirmation and affirmation necessary to go ahead and open a trading account.
Being able to offer such advice and information is not that difficult to accomplish. The first obvious step on your behalf, irrespective if you already possess relevant knowledge and skills, is performing a thorough research which will help you uncover information that can actually have added value to your audience. Think what kind of information prospective traders are most likely to be seeking and hand them over exactly what they are looking for, through dissemination methods and channels that are appealing as well as engaging.
It is useful to note here that the broker whose affiliate program we are using as an example, namely OspreyFX scores highly in this respect, since it offers an incredible array of educational materials, in the form of online tutorials and other tools, which enable any affiliate marketer who carefully studies them to be able to create and offer valuable content to their audience, making it easier to attract and eventually convert them.
When you partner up with a mere forex broker, this limits your scope and potential as you will essentially just be trying to sell forex. If, however, you choose a CFD broker instead, then you are automatically hugely opening up your horizons and payout potential. The obvious advantage of CFD brokers over forex brokers is that the former enable the trading of a vast array of financial instruments which do include forex, but are not limited to it, thus creating endless possibilities for your affiliate marketing endeavors. Since a CFD brokerage allows traders and investors to trade not only in forex but also in bonds, stocks and options, ETFs, indices, ADRs and commodities, as an affiliate of such a broker you have a much wider spectrum of prospective traders to target and reach out to, thus making it easier to achieve conversions and increase your renumeration.
The cornerstone of any successful marketing effort is identifying and comprehending what are the main pain points of concern for the selected target audience, followed by the devising and offering of credible and effective solutions to these pain points. When it comes to aspiring traders, the main pain points usually pertain to the challenges they will be faced with when trading and having the right answer to their most common key questions, while effectively addressing their concerns is of paramount importance not only for the attraction of quality traffic but most importantly in increasing conversion rates. With regards to the need to offer solutions to trader’s pain points OspreyFX has also got you covered, as the insightful educational material they put at the disposal of their affiliates equips them with the necessary knowledge to effectively offer remedies to traders’ pain points.
Since forex affiliate marketing is hugely popular, this means that there are plenty others out there just like you, competing to attract the same kind of traffic that you are after. To remedy this problem, you need to differentiation from your competitors and give valid reasons to users to choose your offering instead of someone else’s. Of course this is easier said than done, but again it is attainable if you are willing to do what it takes. Here is how you should go about it:
As achieving differentiation is not only desired but absolutely essential for success, the most crucial question you must have an answer to is “what is your Unique Selling Point (USP)”? If you don’t have an answer to that question then you are better off not attempting to become an affiliate marketer and waste your time and effort for no reason. Having that unique angle from which to approach your selling and marketing efforts is simply imperative. And you need to identify what it is that makes you unique otherwise you will be devoid of the much sought-after competitive edge over your antagonists. If you are having trouble finding your uniqueness, then it is a good idea to take some time and observe what others are doing and how they are doing it and then ask yourself what you would do different and how you could do better. This will enable you to develop your USP and be able to have a solid answer as to what makes you stand out from the rest of the herd and why you should be the preferred affiliate marketer for your referrals.
Your forex affiliate traffic and potential leads will much appreciate and more drawn to you if you attempt to provide them with appropriate incentives that will render your offering even more appealing to their eyes. A great way to incentivize your audience is offering them free educational materials, such as eBooks or webinars that require a free registration. Making such offers is doubly beneficial for you since, besides scoring like points, they also allow you quickly build a trusted email list that can come in handy. Another incentive that goes down really well with aspiring traders is offering demo trading accounts for people to practice and get the grips of trading itself and the trading platform without risking to lose any real money. Most brokers offer this capability and OspreyFX is one of those providing wannabe traders with this option.
Once you have explored and understood the key pain points of the audience you will be targeting to achieve referrals, this will also help you discern what your USP should be as well. Knowing how you will differentiate yourself in order to stand out from your competitors is half the battle and this will also guide you in knowing which type of expert information and advice you ought to be offering your audience. an idea of your referral traffic/target audience’s key pain points and then figured out what should be your USP. The next crucial step is choosing the actual marketing strategy you will rely on and decide on which funnels you will be using in order to attract your affiliate traffic. Persistence is key at this stage and should remember to stay focused on your chosen strategy until the desired results are obtained. Take a mental note here that some perseverance may be required as things will not all go your way miraculously overnight.
Social media are rapidly becoming dominant in all aspects of marketing and their correct usage is bound to bring hordes of high-quality affiliate traffic your way. In fact, the most bullet proof way to establish yourself as an authoritative, expert figure in trading matters and the trading scene is to connect to your audience via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even Instagram and build up your fan base through the posting and publishing of high quality, informative material. Your content should be clear, credible and insightful, while, as already discussed, it should be effectively addressing and seeking to provide answers and solutions to your target audience’s main pain points.
Therefore, your affiliate marketing endeavours will be greatly benefitted if you obtain accounts in as many social media channels as possible and properly optimize your social profiles to attain maximum exposure and visibility before your target audience, championing on the notion of valuable information sharing. Once you partner up with a particular broker their contribution to your marketing success via social media will be crucial, since they ought to be the one’s providing you with ready-made, appealing and engaging branded material that will help you increase your conversion rates. OspreyFX goes a step further when it comes to providing its affiliates with marketing support, as besides offering promotional material and tools, it also assigns each affiliate with a dedicated personal manager who is available to provide expert assistance and guidance especially at the initial stages, thus maximizing an affiliate’s potential.
Few can dispute or rival the pervasiveness of email as a means of business communication. Due to this, the correct use of email marketing renders it a powerful tool and the perfect venue to promote your forex and or CFD affiliate endeavors at a mere fraction of the cost of other marketing routes. The catch is to be constantly monitoring and re-evaluating your email strategy and be ready to change your approach if the results yielded are not satisfactory. Since there are very minimal costs involved in launching email promotional campaigns, the only real cost is time and having the patience to wait and see what really works and what doesn’t. Getting it right through email is essentially a trial and error process but once you do strike the right message, timing and audience the impact it can have on increasing conversions is potentially huge.
Nowadays the majority of marketing professionals make extensive use of video as a marketing tool in order to capitalize on its proven effectiveness. If an image speaks a thousand words, then a video speaks volumes more and it thus not surprising that video content comfortably tops the league when it comes to ROI. In fact, the marketers using video experience significant increase on their return on investment and overall revenues, with the added benefit of getting there faster too.
CFD and forex affiliate marketers are no exception and their video content usage has helped many score impressively high affiliate conversion rates leading to very high revenues from commissions. To make full use of this marketing strategy you will need, besides some technical skills in video making, to also be creative, imaginative and tasteful and have an eye for detail. The videos you create can then be disseminated though all your available channels, either used as part of an email campaign, uploaded to your website or posted to your social media accounts, thus achieving maximum exposure and earning maximum engagement.
As already discussed the best way to establish your expertise and authority and consequently expand your reach and followers’ base is through the posting and dissemination of content that is deemed helpful and necessary in the eyes of your target audience. All your marketing efforts stand to benefit a lot if you choose to partner with the right broker, who will put at your disposal not only ready-made promotional material but also many more sources and resources which you can study and repurpose to enrich your affiliate marketing efforts. As already pointed out, the affiliates joining the OspreyFX Get to work don’t waste time, go ahead and go through your broker’s educational material, tutorials, videos, eBooks, and learning centers for content to repurpose in your marketing efforts. When joining with affiliate program immediately gain access to all the educational material crafted by OspreyFX, as well as to effective marketing material that they can rely on to facilitate them.
On that note, perhaps you would also be interested in exploring some of the top forex Affiliate Marketing Trends to Boost your Profits as detailed in our recently posted guide to enhance your perspective and be better geared to take the leap towards forex affiliate success.
When entering any sort of business partnership or transaction, the commonest fear is being tricked into paying more than you get, or getting something less or different than what you have bargained for. Ever since the medieval markets, the fear of buyers was paying for a pig only to open the sack to find a useless cat in it instead, and yes as you have gathered that is where the phrase “letting the cat out of the bag” comes from. Avoiding pitfalls and tricks and getting what you should be getting and what you were promised are valid concerns when choosing which affiliate program to join also, so let us try to demonstrate what issues you should pay attention to, to be able to make the right choice.
Their huge profit-generating potential, which is what makes them so popular, is also the reason why many crooks are also drawn to forex affiliate programs as well. Unfortunately, you do need to be wary and avoid the pitfall of joining some sort of shady schemes which lures you in with fancy words of incredible and unbeatable offers and deals, only to find out after you sign that things are far different than what you have expected and were promised.
To avoid such a predicament and any pitfalls and false promises, it is therefore imperative that you carefully select which forex affiliate program to join, making sure it will be the best and most suitable for your own particular case and needs. By paying particular attention to the following factors, you should be able to secure the best deal and see through any scams.
Let's us not beat around the bush and admit that the most important question you should ask before joining any FX affiliate program is whether it is possible to make some decent money through it. Once you get a positive answer to this question, you can move on to making other comparisons and figuring out the rest. The problem is that often the answer to this question is not so obvious and straightforward as one would have thought, simply because there are several types of forex affiliate programs around and each has its own payment structures, tied to different commission types and levels, often making it difficult to compare like with like.
As a general guidance we could say that on average you could expect to received around $500 to $600 for each new trader you refer to the broker’s site, but the actual height of the commission will depend on the trader’s initial deposit amount as well as their lots traded. Many forex affiliate programs allow you to keep earning as your referral keeps funding their account and keeps spending, while other programs also offer you payouts for secondary referrals, i.e. each time someone you originally referred, refers someone new.
However, to be able to make comparisons and reach valid conclusions you will need to study all available schemes and structures carefully and match them to your own needs and aspirations to discern which suits you best and will result in you earning more.
Another problem with the huge growth and popularity of affiliate referral programs is that the market is so crowded that it is hard to discern which brokers and sites are really honest and legit and which are more shady and much less trustworthy. To avoid pitfalls, you need to scrutinize each program carefully and ensure any partner you choose is completely above the board, offering an affiliate program that comes with complete transparency, especially when it comes to how affiliations and referrals are tracked, how trades are recorded and reported and exactly how payments and commissions are calculated. Opt for those programs which give you full access and control to the relevant data, enabling you to keep an eye on much how much you are earning as you go along, thus allowing you to monitor your progress and the effectiveness of your efforts and be able to adjust them accordingly.
The onboarding and new customer sign up process offered by the broker you choose to partner with is crucial for your success, as it would be a real shame and waste of your effort if referrals reach the broker, but the conversion is not achieved due to onboarding pain points. It is therefore important to know exactly how this done yourself and you should thoroughly scrutinize how the broker’s system works and what its customer interface looks and feels like. Choose to work with a broker who ranks high in terms of ease when it comes to onboarding and new sign ups, through a process that is seamless, smooth, simple, clear, straight-forward and an interface that is user-friendly and enhances the user experience instead of hindering it.
As affiliate marketing is essentially “word of mouth” marketing the good reputation of the broker you will be partnering with is crucial for your endeavor, as you would have a hard time promoting and endorsing a broker with a stained reputation that others are actively bad mouthing, let alone sway your audience convert and choose such a broker. Of course, you cannot tell if a broker is well respected simply by taking at face value what brokers say about themselves on their sites and other venues. Instead you should search yourself, both online and perhaps even offline to evaluate how well respected and dependable, or renowned a broker really is.
Also evaluate how transparent a broker is and how forthcoming in answering questions about what they do and how they do it. Visit forums and review sites and try to judge a broker through the eyes of a potential trader/client since after all it is these people you will be trying to convince to choose the particular broker over others. To be able to achieve better conversion rates and higher earnings, only choose to partner up with brokers that offer competitive spreads and top-notch customer service.
Avoid brokers who come across as too eager to onboard you and use slick methods to lure you in and instead prefer those who can prove they can deliver on their promises and hold proven track records of high customer satisfaction, including easily accessible customer support, as well as multilingualism which will enable you to target an audience as wide as possible.
For further analysis on the importance of a Forex Broker's Reputation check out our section below “From a forex trader's perspective - OspreyFX Forex Broker Review 2021 - Pros and Cons Uncovered”, where the topics to considered are presented in greater detail using a real-life example or you can even get a more general approach with our latest guide on How to Find the Best CFD & Forex Brokers
If the matter of choosing a regulated or an unregulated broker is approached superficially it could be summed with choosing protection over flexibility and the potential of higher earnings that comes at an increased risk. However, we dare to argue here that this black and white, simplistic approach is faulty at its root and tends to over-generalize and exaggerate a dichotomy, thus leading in essence to a false dilemma. The real question is not whether a broker is regulated or not and whether a trader or affiliate should choose between two different worlds and compromise either protection over flexibility or vice versa. In fact, we even dare claim that having the best of both worlds is actually both possible and plausible.
Clearly, the regulatory standards governing the forex market evolve as the market itself grows and progresses and the evident tendency is moving towards stricter rules, which lead to more restricted trading conditions. What this means in reality is that regulated brokers are left with little more for leeway, since even the slightest deviation in their offering would lead to hefty fines and even the stripping of their licenses.
On the other hand, unregulated brokers should not be equated to scammers simply because they are unregulated. In fact, while it is unattainable for regulated brokers to be flexible as this is not allowed by the regulatory framework they have to adhere to, an unregulated broker may well offer a very safe and protective environment to its traders and affiliates, while at the same time keeping the benefits of flexibility. The real issue to take into account is not the regulation seal, but the actual intentions and ethos of a broker, what they are actually offering and how this offering matches and serves the specific needs and aspirations of a client/trader.
What you should be considering in reality is thus the perfect combination between broker intent and client approach. And under this lens, the lower operation costs, fewer tax burdens and access to unregulated markets that an unregulated broker comes with, may well be advantages, provided that same broker is committed and takes active steps to offset the limitations that come with its lack of regulation in mostly in terms of liquidity and payment processing.
So, instead of looking for a regulator’s seal of approval and letting that guide your decision on which broker to partner with, thus ignoring all unregulated brokers at face value, you should instead take the time and effort to find out exactly what each broker offers and how dedicated and committed they are to offer their clients the best possible trading conditions. Be well informed and equipped to understand the subtler nuances and don’t let your decisions be guided by overgeneralizations.
In short, against a regulated broker that is much constrained in what they are allowed to offer, you may choose a much more flexible unregulated broker, provided the latter shows the same level of credibility and responsibility towards traders and uses all means, including its partnership networks to ensure clients have ample access to tools and conditions that enhance their chances for success.
Whether regulated or not, a broker should be committed in offering as low spreads and trading costs as possible, while at the same time ensuring adequate liquidity and access to fund protection. Competitive pricing is a must and it should be complimented through the use of advance market data software which ensures a credible price feed across different asset classes.
At the end of the day, then it is not a question of who is regulated or not, but who has the willingness to offer you the best of both worlds and to allow you to trade flexibly and with greater earning potential, without forgoing your safety and security.
By its very nature, successfully participating in a forex affiliate program entails being able to onboard a lot of people who would be willing to open and fund trading accounts with your specific partner broker. By default, this challenge is a marketing one, it wouldn’t be called affiliate marketing otherwise! People acting as affiliate marketers however, are usually not marketers by profession, nor necessarily hold any relevant training either. But even for affiliate marketers with a relevant background, the truth is that successful forex affiliate marketing is painstaking and time consuming and often leads to immense workload coupled with diminishing returns.
Most forex brokers are aware that their affiliate marketers face an immense amount of challenges and are thus willing to chip in to your efforts in an attempt to make your part in the partnership as smooth as possible. In fact, there is an increasing shift in favour of the concept of a partnership approach to govern affiliate marketing endeavours and under this framework both sides try to base their iterations on mutual trust and attaining mutually set goals, by helping each other as much as they can to deliver on their end of the deal.
This is why most forex brokers provide their affiliations with ample and extensive ready-made marketing materials, as well as templates they can repurpose, including social media headers, banners, widgets and tons of supporting literature to share on. Before choosing the broker you will partner up with, it would be a good idea to check out what kind of help and materials they offer their affiliates, to decide if their offering matches your own needs and aspirations for the partnership.
As already hinted at, one of the most important aspects you should actively seek to ensure is partnering up with a broker that is fully transparent and allows you to easily have access to your performance records and data as an affiliate. Therefore, try to choose a partner broker that offers an easy to use, dedicated partner platform, providing you with the right tools to be able to monitor your performance at all times, being able to evaluate the actual quality of your signups and your attained ROI. To be in a better position to do this, see a partner broker who provides a partner portal through which you will be able to have full access to your own dashboard any time you want and be able to draw full and detailed reports, statistics and analytics. This will allow you to better evaluate your strategy and be able to adjust and re-adjust it in order to achieve even better results both in terms of ROI and of actual conversions.
Irrespective of how good technologically a broker’s system, platform and affiliates’ portal may be, there is always a chance that something goes wrong and that either you or one of your referrals may need to contact the broker to resolve a problem or ask a question. Seek brokers who are readily available to be of assistance and who have in place a dedicated team to offer support, resolve problems and answer questions. Support should be easy to find and reach, while support staff should be polite, knowledgeable and able to communicate in as many languages as possible, allowing you to reach out to a greater number of potential sign ups.
What is of utmost importance but often gets lost in the details and specificities of different affiliate schemes and payout structures is that at the end of the day what you will be “selling” as an affiliate marketer is the broker’s trading platform, since you will be trying to convince people to trust the specific broker and its platform with their money and open up a trading account through them. If the trading platform isn’t top notch and does not meet the needs and demands of traders, then as an affiliate marketer you have a big problem, because at the end of the day if what you are trying to promote is seriously flawed or even unsellable, it doesn’t matter how hefty commissions it pays, since you won’t be able to sell it anyway.
In your hunt for the perfect broker partner, seek one whose trading platform is robust, credible, easy to navigate and good to trade through seamlessly. Also show preference to those brokers who facilitate the trading of a broad range of financial instruments, not only forex, but also shares, indices, commodities and the quickly rising in popularity cryptocurrencies. Offering trading via all devices, including mobiles, and allowing the performance of multi-asset trades are another two appealing strongpoints you should look out for.
The million-dollar question to answer during the process of selecting a forex affiliate program to join is not which program is the best in a general sense, but which one is the best for you in particular, the most fitting and suitable, the one that best meets your own needs and matches your own aspirations as an affiliate marketer. And exactly because there is great variation between programs, both in the way they operate as well as in the way they pay, you should make sure that you understand all the details about each program you are considering to join and be certain about its structure and payment terms, to be able to make credible comparisons and reach valid conclusions.
Fortunately, the top-notch brokers usually offer affiliate programs which are not rigid and one-size-fits-all oriented, but several collaboration options and several payment structures from which you could mix and match to create an arrangement that is tailored exactly as you would want. Don’t be shy of asking what you would like or negotiating to get a deal like you want it.
If reading this far has triggered your interest and you feel more ready than ever to join the amazing bandwagon of forex affiliate marketing, then stick around and read on as we gradually move on to the real life example of a specific forex affiliate program, showcasing how to join and effectively promote it.
The whole process of becoming a forex affiliate marketer can be broadly divided into 3 basic steps, which are: Step 1 – Registration with the affiliate program platform Step 2 – Preparation Step 3 – Launching of advertising/promotional campaigns. Each stage is further explored below with particular reference to the forex affiliate program of OspreyFX.
As already explained above, we shall be using the OspreyFX Affiliate Program as a case study and paradigm in order to better illustrate the how’s and why’s of forex affiliation. The rationale behind choosing to focus on the Opsrey FX example, is because we strongly feel it is decent and offers numerous lucrative opportunities for its affiliates, while also scoring high in other areas of affiliate concern, such as customer support.
To help you see what we saw in the Osprey FX Affiliate program, here’s a brief overview neatly summarizing the must know information prior to taking the decisive first step on in the process and actually registering with the program.
The OspreyFX Affiliate Program is an umbrella term, covering a number of options and set ups, via which a partnership can be built between OspreyFX and any interested individual or firm, that is interested in promoting OspreyFX in exchange for a reward. As neatly pointed out by OspreyFX themselves, one of the strong points of this particular referral program is that “it can be tailored to your existing business or you can build your business with our assistance.” As with all similar affiliate programs, all joining promoters are then rewarded for each new trader introduced, whereas the actual promotion of the broker may be done either offline through personal, direct, referrals, or as most do nowadays, online, though websites, blogs and social media accounts.
Online promotion is the preferred method, since the process is much easier and can offer maximum exposure. Immediately after becoming an OspreyFX affiliate a unique tracking code will be assigned and sent to you, that you can then embed on your website or use on all your social media accounts. Through this tracking code, you will be able to automatically get credit for any account openings and trading volume that you generate. The tracking process also gives you full control over your performance since you will always know at any given time how many visitors you have referred.
The referral may be achieved with your users never actually having to leave your site, as with the IFRAME code that Osprey FX puts at your disposal to be embedded on your website, your visitor will be able to register and open a trading account with OspreyFX while staying on your own site the whole time!
OspreyFX also offers an Introducing broker program, alongside its Affiliate Program enabling all its aspiring partners to choose which arrangement and payment structure is most suitable to their own skills, needs, plans and aspirations. Flexibility is offered in the pursuit of fostering partnerships that are mutually beneficial making it possible to yield great results for both sides.
To get a fairly accurate and comprehensive idea of how well Osprey FX fares as a broker in order to discern if becoming their affiliate and promoting them is something that would interest you, our team has crafted this unique review aimed at getting you in the know. So, here goes:
How does the broker website fare in terms of navigation ease? OspreyFX’s website is clearly designed and signposted thus making its navigation a breeze. Exerting a “gaming vibe”, the look and feel of the website is fresh and dynamic. Most importantly than looking good, the elements contained in it cover all that you would expect to see and all that an aspiring trader will need to know in order to decide to sign up. One of their strong points in terms of website structure and content is the FAQ page, which is comprehensive and much more decent than those we usually come across.
Osprey FX facilitates the trading of a truly impressive array of tradable assets, with those up for grabs including Forex, CFDs, Cryptos, Metals, Energies, Futures, Indices, and a wide range of stocks. Through its extensive list of tradable assets OspreyFX caters to the needs and preferences of its customers by offering them enough variety to satisfy them and enable them to diversify their portfolios and maximize their chances for trading success.
Osprey FX offers their client 4 different account types to choose from, namely the: Mini, Standard, VAR and PRO account types. The main characteristics of each account type are shown on the table above. Each of them requires a different minimum deposit amount, while the spreads and commissions charged also vary depending on the account type. It should be noted that when trading on the mini account, which is geared towards newbie traders, there are less forex pairs available for trading, while all other account types enjoy full access to the list of tradable assets available.
True to their commitment to offer their clients full transparency Osprey FX display their live spreads on their website itself. When evaluating the prices quoted and comparing them to what is typically offered by other brokers, we can safely argue that OspreyFX are comfortably competitive when it comes to their spreads.
Since the level of spreads is closely associated with the liquidity a broker enjoys, we asked an OspreyFX agent via live chat to tell us who is the liquidity provider for this broker. The response we got was that they aggregate from different providers, citing Lmax, Charter Prime and Bitfinex as examples. All three are known and trusted sources of liquidity provision and this is further vouching that OspreyFX is a legitimate broker, worthy of its customers’ trust and preference.
The maximum leverage offered when trading via Osprey FX is 1:500. Comfortably above industry averages, the leverage ranges that are up for grabs here are appealing and especially impressive when it comes to Forex, Metal and Cryptocurrency trading in particular. Since high leverage is directly linked to higher profitability potential, leverage is another of OspreyFX’s strongpoints.
Commission charges vary according to the account type you are trading through as well as depending on which assets and/or forex pairs one decides to transact on. Thus, there can be a single, specific answer as to the level of the commission charges, but on the whole, they compare very favorably with others in the industry. Besides being competitive, OspreyFX’s commission charges are also fair and transparent.
When seeking to find out whether OspreyFX offers any kind of deposit bonuses to its clients, we could see no reference to such bonuses anywhere on the broker’s site or their FAQ section. We also inquired about this via live chat, with the OspreyFX agent confirming that there aren’t any deposit schemes on offer by this broker. Though at first this might strike one as odd as such bonuses are commonplace in the industry, on second thought their absence is a welcome deviation and also shows that OspreyFX is not pushy and does not want to pressure clients to deposit more simply to attain a bonus, but rather encourages them to trade and deposit at their own pace, one that they feel comfortable with without being coerced to commit more funds.
Opening a live account is a simple and easy to complete process that is also exceptionally fast. Provided you provide the necessary details and documents to get your account properly verified you should be ready to start trading in a matter of minutes from the time you press submit. Our team opened an account and got it verified in a mere fifteen minutes, so we can vouch that the process is both efficient and fast from first-hand experience.
No clear information on this topic could be found on the broker’s FAQ page, so we went ahead and made this inquiry through the support live chat. Apparently, there are minimum deposit requirements, however, these vary depending on the deposit method each customer opts to use. OspreyFX accepts a variety of deposit methods allowing their customers to choose which one they prefer and what suits them best. The majority of deposit methods require a minimum deposit of $10, while the minimum deposit amounts range up to $100, which is the minimum for deposits via wire transfer.
According to the information that a customer support agent provided us with, the residents from a handful of countries around the world are not allowed to trade with this broker and thus should not be targeted during your affiliate marketing endeavor. These countries are : Burma, Congo, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Vietnam, Zimbabwe.
The obvious reason for joining the OspreyFX affiliate program, as is any other affiliate program, is the fact than you can immediately start earning commissions for every referral you make. Besides the obvious advantages to be had, which could potentially be attained through most solid FX affiliate arrangements, what makes the OspreyFX affiliate offering stand out and makes it a particularly appealing option for affiliate marketers to choose Osprey as their preferred partner is the treatment that Osprey reserves for its affiliates. OspreyFX has chosen to place its affiliate partners at the center of its overall marketing efforts. This is why it places importance in ensuring that all referred clients get an excellent level of service and an unrivalled trading experience, while safeguarding that all its affiliates get as much as support possible in order to succeed in their endeavor and are able to always receive the rewards they rightly deserve.
In a nutshell, the main pros of joining the OspreyFX affiliate program a good idea are:
As already mentioned, OspreyFX places great significance on its affiliate program and is really committed in helping its affiliates succeed. Completely embracing the notion of a mutually beneficial partnership, OspreyFX tries to equip and push its affiliates to achieve their goals and meet with success, as it realizes that it directly stands to benefit too from the success of its affiliates. In doing their utmost to facilitate affiliates to produce results fast and with the aim of helping them reduce their learning curve, OspreyFX is very generous with the provision not only of ready-made, yet versatile marketing materials, but also with dedicated affiliate training sessions and information packs.
With OspreyFX being a relatively new entrant in the market, this can be viewed as an added opportunity for affiliate marketers, since they will be faced with less competition from other affiliates in the same network. There is however also a downside in that OspreyFX is a less recognizable brand, making your prospective referrals more hesitant to commit their funds with a firm they are unfamiliar with. However, through systematic and innovative promotion and showcasing of this broker’s strongpoints, these initial reservations can be overcome with relevant ease.
To sum it all up, the OspreyFX affiliate program is an option for interested affiliate marketers that stands out because it actually holds great promise and comes with increased prospects for achieving the goals set and enjoying high conversions and commission profits. By joining this program, you are entering a true partnership aimed at mutual benefits and success. You will be helping OspreyFX increase its brand recognition, visibility and exposure and enlarge its client base, while OspreyFX will be helping you ensure a healthy income by providing you with materials, training and tools you can rely on and use to make your affiliate efforts more effective.
First you need to register as an affiliate on OspreyFX and receive your affiliate link.
Next you need to set up your affiliate endeavor using the banners, ads and other promotional materials that are provided to you as an affiliate by the broker, as well as repurpose content drawn from the ample educational content that is put at your disposal.
Manage the traders that you refer, the traffic you generate and the conversions you achieve, using the reports, statistics and other optimization tools provided.
Collect the commissions you earn every week, after being calculated and paid out per lot over $10 traded under your affiliate link.
Alongside the affiliate program, OspreyFX also offers an Introducing Broker program allowing interested individuals to recommend and introduce traders to OspreyFX through their own personal networks. Once again, this umbrella collaboration arrangement is quite flexible and allows you to either pursue the referral of smaller traders, who bring lower income on a recurrent basis, or chase the large payouts derived from high turnover traders, who commit large amounts. The exact way which you will choose to operate under this IB scheme depends entirely on you, and it is determined by the level of contact and interaction you are willing to maintain with your referred traders.
This is because, contrary to the affiliate program, those who choose to join the IB program are simultaneously agreeing to undertake certain responsibilities pertaining to the briefing and mentoring of their referred clients on KYC policies and other documentation required by OspreyFX. IBs should also undertake training activities, such as seminars for traders in order to help with the overall client retention process. Therefore, as opposed to affiliates, IBs are obliged to maintain contact with the referred clients and be in a position to mentor, guide, train and assist them. To perform such tasks they need to be, one way or another, qualified to offer financial advice.
The initial registration for the OspreyFX IB program is simple and straightforward and all that is required on the IB's part is filling in the registration form, signing it and emailing it back to OspreyFX. Since to become an IB certain KYC requirements should be met, the next step in the process is that an Osprey agent will then contact you via telephone and get you to answer some questions for compliance purposes. Though more complex than when becoming an affiliate, the IB registration process is still straightforward enough and in case any additional details or documents are needed, these can always be sent via email once required.
Having examined the IB option of collaboration with Osprey FX, let us now return to step one of the registration process for the Affiliate Program in order to discuss again the all-important renumeration issue, cause after all you are it for the commissions, and you shouldn’t complete the registration unless you are clear and certain about what you stand to receive and how.
Though each affiliate can discuss and agree to different arrangements, as a general guidance you should take into account that OspreyFX pays $2.50 per lot traded under your affiliate link. Hard work pays off however, since if you can generate over 1000 affiliated lot trades per calendar month, then your commission is automatically increased to $3.50 per lot!
OspreyFX is currently running a welcome pack promotion for the first 50 affiliates who will sign up to its program, but as this will be granted on a first-come-first-served basis, you should rush if you wish to secure it. To be eligible to receive this special OspreyFX welcome pack for free you need to refer 10 depositing clients via your OspreyFX affiliate account.
If you are already an affiliate of another forex broker there is nothing stopping you from partnering up with OspreyFX as well, or instead, provided you can secure better terms. On their part OspreyFX are interested in collaborating with existing affiliates, provided they fill out a contact form. Once that is done, OspreyFX gets in touch and can offer to discuss all the available options with the prospective affiliate, allowing you to compare what you are already getting with what you could be getting.
The final concern you should address before proceeding to register in the OspreyFX affiliate program is to make up your own mind as to how decent a broker this is and determine whether promoting it will be hard work because they have problems and face complaints or even totally futile if they are totally crap or a scam.
As already pointed out in our review above, OspreyFX compares pretty favourably to other brokers, not only in terms of the user-friendliness and operation of its platform, but also in the assets it offers for trading, the spreads, leverage and commissions as well as the tools put at the disposal of traders, which enhance their overall experience and increase their earning potential.
Osprey’s most important strongpoint though, is that it is particularly suited to novice, less experienced traders, offering them the opportunity to gain the necessary knowledge in order to maximize their chances for success in the demanding world of online forex trading.
Besides its strong educational element that makes learning a smooth and fast process, the OspreyFX trading platform allows trading on the go on mobile devices and the overall experience is far more comfortable and less overwhelming than on other platforms.
That being said, Osprey FX does not disappoint the needs and demands of more seasoned traders as well, giving them access to a vast array of useful social trading tools and other features they can use to take their trading to the next level.
In a nutshell, OspreyFX is definitely an above average broker whose promotion is a task you can confidently undertake without too much worry. With this reassurance, you should be ready to complete the registration process and move on to the next step, the all-important, preparation.
Once you register and have your affiliate account up and running, you need to properly prepare before you actually start your attempt to attract and promote referrals. During this preparation stage therefore, you will also need to consider whether you need one of the following:
Many affiliates prefer to integrate third-party trackers because they greatly value the importance of detailed statistics and the ability to build custom reports helping them monitor their performance efficiently and adjust their tactics effectively. The good news is that when partnering up with OspreyFX you don’t need to worry about needing a third-party tracker, since Osprey was proactive in this field and has established a partnership with the largest trackers on the market: Voluum, AdsBridge, Thrive, BeMob. Moreover, PropellerAds is already integrated as the Trusted traffic source in all of their interfaces, which will make the connecting process easier for you and removes the need to resort to any third-party tracking software to cover your performance tracking needs.
The concise answer would be that prelanders are definitely worth using and can help the effectiveness of your endeavor, much more than directly sending the traffic to the partner platform, especially since we have already discussed how forex affiliate marketing requires complicated sales funnels as well as multiple touches to build engagement and attain specific traffic over time. A good prelander then, could very well serve the purpose of the first touch and prepare traffic in such a way as to make conversion easier and smoother, since the user’s attention would have already been grabbed and his/her motivation already raised beforehand.
Prelanders can help you significantly raise your achieved conversion rates, as you can make several custom prelanders and test them in different campaigns. In fact, prelanders are a great tool for narrowing your segments and running several campaigns at the same time with different targeting.
Being custom-created, prelanders will work much better as first points of contact, especially since in your main promotional campaigns as an affiliate you will be using the promotional materials already precrafted by the broker and disseminated to all affiliates, meaning many would be using the same materials and they would be stripped of uniqueness.
Finally, prelanders are a great tool through which you can attempt retargeting and never miss a visitor, since you will be able to return to those who have not originally converted and try to achieve conversion through different ways that are much cheaper than attracting new potentials via other advertising channels.
With the registration and preparation steps out the way, you can now really get down to business, but to smooth your course even more, here’s a few pointers you should follow to maximize the effectiveness, efficiency and earning potential of your affiliate endeavor.
The abundance of affiliate programs and the fact that each comes with different payment options and affiliate renumeration plans are definitely confusing for aspiring affiliates, but since you will be putting in your time and effort in order to effectively promote your partner, then it is also wise that you take the time and effort to ensure that you will be fairly rewarded and that the whole arrangement will be worth your while.
If you are this far down in this article it means you are already convinced to choose the CFD and forex affiliate niche, which boasts the higher payouts in the affiliate industry. This is only half the battle though, as you will also need to be fully aware of the different affiliate commission plans, in order to discern which is most suited to your needs and more profitable to your pocket!
Let us see the two main structures you might be called to choose between, to better illustrate their differences and help you decide which is the most appropriate and lucrative in your particular case:
RevShare or Revenue Share in full, is the alternative of the CPA arrangement and it is the commission you receive as a percentage from the “netspreads” (i.e. the spreads minus the bonuses). Revenue share commission plans can also vary considerably under each affiliate program depending on numerous factors. Since you are having a share in all the profits, losses, and sales of your qualified referrals for as long as they are active, this scheme is based on a prolonged engagement, contrary to the one-off nature of CPA schemes. This structure is preferred by many affiliates as it holds potential for incredible gains in the future, however actually accomplishing such gains is uncertain and volatile and depends on the actual trading activity of each of your referrals, which would be difficult to predict or anticipate at the time of referring them.
The catch in the case of RevShare plans is that for the lifetime prospect of profiting from a lead for as long as their account with the broker remains actively traded, to have any validity, the broker itself should reputable and actively take care of its customers through offering excellent customer services levels, to ensure customer retention, including keeping abreast of and offering technological advancements and new tools that will enhance their trading experience.
Having explained the differences in operation and philosophy between CPA and RevShare, it becomes evident that in order to be able to choose the right commission plan for your business you must have a clear picture of your own goals in this business, with particular emphasis as to whether your involvement is short or longer-term, while also factoring in the type of people you are referring. Once you have these answers your decision will become much easier.
To further assist, without dictating what your decision should be, let us simply further comment that it is common for affiliate marketers to choose CPA arrangements as this bring short-term, one-off profits in a fast manner and are en par with the random traffic that the affiliate simply sends over to the partner broker.
On the other hand, introducing brokers, who do not merely refer and divert random traffic, but need to be in constant communication and rapport with the clients they refer, have a more longer term vision and long term goals and thus prefer the RevShare model, since they are banking on the potential they can achieve through the future trading behavior of their existing as well as their potential clients.
Having extensively discussed the notion of partnership when it comes to affiliate programs, it becomes evident that irrespective of the details of the program structure or payment scheme, the most crucial factor that could catapult to up or crash you down is the quality of the broker you choose to partner up with. If you choose an unsellable, then no matter what you do and no matter who big a commission you will be promised, your efforts are doomed to fail. Besides ensuring your partner broker is of a decent standing and a good, untarnished reputation, also try to find a partner that values the partnership as much as you do and is not reluctant to walk an extra mile in order to make it work in a mutually beneficial manner for both of you. This extra effort may come in the form of support or guidance, but also in how flexible the commission plans offered will be and how much they can be tailored to better meet and serve your own specific business needs, to ensure your profitability and long-term growth and health.
The broker used as an example in the case study we present throughout this article, ticks all boxes mentioned above, since it is both reputable and of sufficient quality, while at the same time being committed and willing to help you by doing its utmost to better support your referral efforts.
CFD affiliate programs offer many advantages over Forex affiliate programs and if you are unaware of this fact and opt to seal an affiliate deal with a broker that simply trades in forex pairs, then you stand a lot to lose. On the contrary, by partnering with a CFD broker, that facilitates the trading of a wide variety of financial instruments, including stocks, options, indices, forex pairs, commodities, cryptocurrencies, ADRs, bonds, indices, and ETFs, you are opening up much broader horizons for your affiliate endeavor and greatly extending your target audience, thus maximizing your potential for success and growth.
If you decide to join the CFD affiliate program offered by OspreyFX you will also gain access to a personal dedicated account manager who will help navigate your route every step of the way, and set you up with a state-of-the-art full tracking dashboard that will allow you full control over your performance.
Once you’ve joined a CFD affiliate program, the final step before actually running your promotional campaigns is deciding which commission plan – CPA or RevShare – to take on, depending as we have already discussed on what your goals, aims and aspirations are and also depending on what your partner broke is actually offering and under which terms.
If you are still uncertain about which of the two commission plans is most suitable for you, in case you do partner up with OspreyFX, you can always consult your account manager, who will happily offer you further insights into the different commission programs and guide you to take the most appropriate decision, that will be to your best interest and benefit.
On this note we have finally reached the end of this long-winded post, which sought to help you with becoming the best forex and financial services affiliate you could possibly be. We shall leave you with plenty food for thought and our best wishes for achieving high ROI and high profits, but do get in touch with our team who can clarify any queries and provide any further guidance or assistance on the matter that you may require.
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