Successful Affiliate Marketing

    There are hundreds of thousands of affiliate programs
out there, all of which claim to be the best.  Many
of them try to give you the impression that all you
have to do is use their banners and links then wait
for the money to start rolling in.  Although this
can be the case, this type of scenario normally
applies to large sites with a lot of web traffic.

Choosing banners
With most affiliate programs, you are offered a
variety of banners to plan on your website, as very
few of them will be effective.  The problems with
most banners are their size.  If you choose a banner
that is high in size, it will take a long time to
implement and use.  Therefore, it's recommended that
you use banners no more than 15kb in size.

When you select any types of graphical advertising,
you should try and keep the theme of your website in
mind.  Even though graphical ads are meant to stand
out and catch people's eye, they shouldn't be to
the point where everything else on the page is
completely ignored. 

Pop ups and unders
A lot of companies will now give their affiliates
the chance of using pop up or pop under ads.  In
most opinions, pop ups aren't the way to go.  They
can easily annoy visitors and are normally closed
before they even have the chance to load.  You
should instead go for pop unders and those types
that only display once per visit.

Text link ads
Once of the most successful means of advertisting
is text link ads.  They are easy on bandwidth, don't
use a lot of space, and they easily be implemented
into most types of page layouts.  Good text links
offer some information as to why your visitor
should investigate your offers. 

Email advertising
The direct promotion via email has really taken off
over the last several years, although it has
brought tons of spam with it. If you plan to use
email as a method of advertising your products,
you should stand behind what you sell and make
yourself available to answer any questions.

Patience
If you feel confident that your site can generate
great sales for certain company's, you should
contact them to negotiate an arrangement.  If they
don't seem to enthused to begin with, you should
remain patient as companies are approaced every
day with affiliates looking to make better deals.

The reality remains that most affiliates can't
deliver what they promise, and companies are
aware of this. 

You should always keep in mind that most forms of
advertising will take time.  No matter what methods
you plan to use, give it some time before you make
any type of decision. Although something may not
happen overnight - it very well could in a few
days or weeks.

How To Make Money

     With affiliate programs, it really pays to work well
with others.  Also known as referral programs,
affiliate programs are normally commission based
sales.  You'll recommend a site to your visitors and
then pick up a percentage of any sale that those
visitors make.  You'll benefit from the commission
and the merchant benefits from the sales.

If you already have a website set up, you can run
an affiliate program from it, or you can simply
build a site to promote a particular product or
service.  As long as it brings in more cash than it
takes to build or run it, you'll be fine.

With any marketing program, you'll need to be careful
when you select an affiliate program.  The benefit
of an affiliate program will give you another way
to make money from your users.  Instead of selling
them a product, you simply send them to a partner
then take a cut of the profits.

Even though it may seem tempting to go for programs
with the highest commissions, those programs won't
pay you anything if your visitors don't buy them.

Below, you'll find some tips to help you select an
affiliate program that's right for you:
    1.  Do not accept any less than 25% with
commission.  You can find many programs with great
payment structures and high percentages of pay in
just about any field.
    2.  Look for statistic pages that list the
number of click throughs, sales, and earnings so
you'll be able to see how you are doing. 
    3.  Always look for programs that offer a
wide variety of tools to put on your web site,
including banners, text links, and of course graphics.
    4.  Find out hwo often you'll be paid and
be sure that the payment schedule meets with your
own expectations.  Some programs will pay monthly,
while others will pay quarterly.
    5.  Be sure that top level support is
included.  If they can't answer your questions in
a quick and timely manner, you don't want to work
with them.

Once you learn what you are doing with affiliate
programs, you can make a lot of money.  If you
are just starting out, you should always use common
sense and not rush into anything.  As you become
more familiar with how things work, you'll be well
on your way to making a lot of money - and
enjoying making it.  If you have to work hard, you'll
be glad you did.