Most appropriate approach to affiliate marketing for greenfield website (merchant)

[Neoseo]

Hi there,

I recently finished developing a couple of digital products intended for real estate investors and created my website to market these products. I'm now looking to learn more about affiliate marketing and more specifically about the best approach in my current situation:
* I'm new to this business (and my website is too) so nobody knows about me or my products
* I don't have a budget for marketing hence my intention to go the affiliate marketing path (pay per sale instead of paid ads, etc)

I initially started reaching out to real estate & personal blogs that I regularly read but came the conclusion that it may not be the best approach right now (to be confirmed):
* I'm a nobody, and although I really think my products could benefit the blogs' readers, they have limited incentive to take a chance on me. On that point, maybe I should reach out to smaller blogs that have more to gain and could be more open to the idea.
* Managing the program alone could become a hassle and lead to mistakes (last thing I would want is some kind of legal battle).

I saw online that an alternative to running my own program is to join an affiliate network and I'm therefore looking for advice in that regard. What would be your network recommandation (or general approach) in my situation, given that:
* I can't and won't pay a big upfront / membership fee to join (so bye bye the largest networks)
* I don't generate many sales right now so bye bye networks with monthly fee if performance targets are not reached.
* I sell digital products not physical ones (if that makes a difference)

I'm therefore looking for a network that is affordable to join and friendly to start-ups and small businesses. After looking online, I'm tempted to join Clickbank as it seems like it has been a reference for many years and is relatively cheap to join. Downside seems to be the amount of merchants selling crap products / scams. I do not wish for my products to be associated with that type of things.

Note that in parallel, I'm trying to grow my presence on social media, but that's another story.

What would be your recommandation?

Thanks a lot

 

[T J Tutor]

I spent more than 20 years in real estate and I can tell you it is no different than any other business They want a proven product! You need to have a group of Alpha and/or Beta Testers try it out and report back. Fix the bugs, then get reviews from them that can be posted on the site. You need to give out loads of these for testing. You are talking about very sophisticated group of people in the real estate investment field. I represented many of the biggest in upstate New York for many years. They are a tough nut to crack!