When to apply to become an affiliate?

[Xander]

I am working on two new sites that will be content/review based but with strong links to selling the items being reviewed. Now my question is, when joining affliate schemes how long do you wait? I.e. do you just have a basic site with minimal content(do you need any at all) or do you wait for some strong content/userbase?

I am in the process of building these sites and don't know what places like CJ or Amazon like/check(if at all).

Many thanks

[r2d2]

Not sure about others, but I signed up with Amazon a few months before I even had a site.

What affiliate scheme was it?

[Xander]

So you don't need a website up and running before you signup with Amazon?

I was looking at a few of CJ's offers e.g. Argos/etc and they obviously wanted the url but I don't know if they want to see it up and running or what.

[5starAffiliates]

Xander,

Some CJ programs are on auto-pilot and approve everyone without checking your site. Many of these programs have lots of parasites and auto cookie setters, since they auto-approve everyone.

Pro-actively managed programs like the ones we run review every site to be sure it does not have anything unethical going on, to be sure it's fairly well designed and some program managers also screen to be sure the site content is a match for the merchant's products.

[Emancipator]

xander with amazon go and setup right away, but with CJ and other such sites get your site running first.

[Xander]

Thanks for the information.

With regards to CJ affiliates/places that check, what do they look for. Do they look for a complete site or if I only had a few item reviews up would that be ok? I just am wondering if I just had the site up and running and about 5 reviews would that be ok or would I need to(should?) to wait until I've actaully launched the site(i.e. got traffic and enough content(looking at probably 10 reviews or something).

[Emancipator]

got a site link?

[Xander]

There is currently no sites online, am testing which is why I asked whether I should have something up.

[s2kinteg916]

I would get some traffic before ... applying for affiliate programs...

[Emancipator]

xander with nothing up none of the good affiliates will touch you. Get some content and uniques first.

[Xander]

Content and traffic/visitors are my priorities but the affiliate part is important. I'm not looking to popup some quick content and just make some money. I'm also trying to gauge the timing, i.e. what sort of level of establishedness(is that a word?) would I need.

Would a decent affiliate scheme look at a site that is less than a month, or is time irrespecitive. E.g. Getting a good site up with good content but getting a lot of traffic in a short time. The reason for speed is I temp for my day job and so am looking to get supplemental income via websites. I already run websites but not for profit ones, I'm moving into areas that I enjoy but that have more possibilties(income wise).

[Emancipator]

my site is 4months old, and has plenty of content and visitors, so i never base success on time as much as committment of YOUR time ;)

[Xander]

I will signup with Amazon now, to test with my site and leave the CJ affiliate for a while. I'll just concentrate on getting up the site with decent content/traffic.

Thanks for all the replies.