IQOption Review – an EU Binary Options Affiliate Program

This is a sponsored post and I have been paid to write about the affiliate program for IQOption.  I have zero idea of how binary options work, if they’re legal to use in the USA or if this is a good company to work with.  It is only my review of their affiliate program, but does contain honest opinions.  As with any other sponsored post or review, it is up to you to do your own work when researching the program since they change with management, company executives or overall marketing strategy.

What I really liked about the IQOptions.com program, as opposed to other European affiliate sections, is that it automatically takes me to the language version they expect me to know. Others programs may make the language responsive for the homepage and main site, but they normally forget to translate their affiliate sections and communications.  That’s a good sign in my book that this program has a manager and web team that understands an affiliate, and their referrals needs.

Once I clicked through to their affiliate section, I discovered spammy text.  It’s a clean design, but using wording like “highest payouts” and “best converting offers” is always a huge red flag.  If this was me researching a program they would have fallen lower on the list of ones I may try.  I can however say they paid for this post ahead of time so they’ve made good on their money with me.  When you find legit companies and programs that have this spammy text, that normally means they had a bad consultant help with them.  You may flag them, but don’t always count them out.

I don’t know what the case is here, but the manager I had been talking to paid me on time, is very responsive with me and I’m hoping they edit this content to be more relevant for potential partners by talking about tools, support and then payouts.  I’ll happily help since the rep. that contacted me seems very eager and a nice guy.

Now let’s go into the actual IQoptions affiliate program, the tools they offer and see if we can find some good info if you’re looking for european binary options affiliate programs (I sort of love saying that, even though I have no idea what it means).   Signing up for this program is super easy and I love that they have a traffic sources drop down.  It is awesome that they specifically look for what would appear to be value adding partners.  I give them a ton of credit for doing this.  What is missing is an “other” category so the person can fill it out on their own.

If the person would be doing something that is against their TOS, this takes away one level of protection that they would have had and could provide to their value adding partners.

If you don’t allow PPV/Toolbars/Adware, etc…, having them as options will give you a line of protection.  If you’re a content site and a PPV person doesn’t check it or doesn’t fill it out in the other, they may target your site to show ads over and try to take credit for your sales.  Some industries like insurance aren’t allowed to offer coupons and certain programs may not even be allowed to have coupon sites in their program.

Having an other section gives the managers a heads up to see if the coupon partner would have a different site that isn’t against their TOS.  BTW, coupon sites aren’t bad and I’m not bashing them, I just finished an audit for an insurance program and they said they aren’t allowed to be on any coupon sites because of their legal team so this one stood out for me.  Here’s a post on why coupon sites are not always bad.

The next field down was confusing for me.  The rep will be commenting on this post so he’ll be able to answer.  I don’t know what rev. share vs. 10,000 means.  Do I get to choose a revenue sharing option or a 10,000 flat fee.  Also, what currency denomination is it?  USD, CA dollars, Pesos, Pounds, Crowns, In and Out Burgers (that would be amazing!) etc…  I selected rev. share and it went through so I’m guessing everything is good.

Once you click to go to the next step they prompt you with a clear and easy to read messaging helping you activate your account.  This is awesome since many programs and networks leave you hanging.  The downside is that I could activate myself without anything protecting their company from fraud.  This is a level of protection they could have, but at the same time also lets good partners activate instantly.  Since they’re very responsive and I got an automated follow up this morning, chances are they are evaluating everything and will probably be doing fraud checks on their own.

This activation email is good, but since they have my name, they should start with Hello Adam! instead of just hello.  What’s really good and is a sign that I found a good program is that they give me a quick resource with how to do things as a partner.  The email gives me my user name to log in (they should provide a link to log in and password recovery), how to create and change affiliate links as well as the support information of their affiliate manager.  (It would be great if they used bullet points instead of just spaces and dashes so it’s more visually appealing).

They open with a focus on their TOS which is great to help ensure new partners have read it, but moving the manager’s info higher would be better so we can have it and access him more easily.  There is a ton of content in this email, but all of it is useful for new affiliates which helps to show they have someone who understands an affiliate’s needs.  This is a huge differentiator and something that is extremely important when selecting an affiliate program.  Now let’s go into the interface.

Whomever designed this interface needs a huge pat on the back.  You have clear side navigation that guides you to what you need from the affiliate blog to stats, payouts and even the different tools.  This is awesome!  What’s even better is that as you open the main screen you get afftrak parameters just like ShareASale and one for mixed channel traffic.

This looks like an amazing option for testing and optimizing your own campaigns to maximize your profits.  I’m seriously impressed with the UX and friendliness of this system.  Other in house programs can learn a lot from signing up and checking it out.

The screen opens with a language drop down offering you multiple options so that you can go across country and language barriers.  You can add in your own promo links (I’m assuming this is deep linking) and they offer some gorgeous video players for their promo videos.  There is a big issue with their video creatives.  They are not affiliate links.

Instead they are direct embeds from YouTube so you will not get credit if you use them on your site.  Instead you’ll go to the IQ Options video channel and give your traffic away for free.  They may want to look into my ex-client’s tool Viewbix.  (I still love the tool they have and they’re a great company so yes I still mention and promote them even though we don’t work with each other anymore).  This will let them embed their videos into a customizable player and let you add in affiliate links so it can be tracked back to your account.

The “referral” category is where you’ll find current promos and coupon codes.  You have a section called “Top Ten” which shows you how much the top ten partners are selling and making over the previous 30 days.  It can be used as a motivator so don’t let it discourage you if you’re having trouble increasing in sales.  Let other people’s success drive you, not turn you off.  I love seeing these types of stats when I’m interested in a niche and it gives me goals to shoot for.

If I was looking for a trading or binary options affiliate program in Europe, this would be one I would absolutely consider.  They have been really responsive with me, friendly and offer every tool I like to use when promoting programs.  Click here to join the IQOption affiliate program.

On a quick side note, their affiliate links are direct links to a subdomain with a tracking parameter so they are not natural backlinks.  You may want to add in a no follow attribute to the links so you and they may have less of a chance of getting slapped by Google for unnatural linking.