Becoming an affiliate marketer is an interesting and exciting process. There are so many programs out there for you to promote. You should think seriously before you commit to any one program.

Choosing A Program

To become an affiliate marketer, you must choose the right affiliate program to market. This can be done by reviewing as much information as possible about the affiliate program you are interested in joining. You can start also by reviewing what other affiliates have to say about the program before you sign up.

When choosing to become an affiliate marketer, there are certain things you should be aware of. For example, you should know what percentage of the sale of the affiliate product you will receive. This can range from as low as 10% to 75% of the sales price. Generally, the higher the commission, the better for you.

After you have chosen a program you beileve will be profitable to you may elect tohave a website designed to showcase your product in a professional manner. But why, I ask, would you choose to spend the time, effort and money to re-invent the wheel? Many affiliates are now providing a professional sales letter for your use and/or provide a redirect to the sales site. This makes sense for both the seller and provider.

Using An Autoresponder

Once you have selected an affiliate program, you, yes you must promote your program,. It is a good idea to set up an opt-in list and autoresponder from the beginning. There are many, many autoresponders available. Do an online search and comparison to choose the one best for you and the products you promote.

Using your autoresponder you can generate of list of names and email addresses of people who have purchased the product from your web site, or a list of people interested in finding more information about the product. You can use this list to send them information about product updates or to send information about new products you are promoting. This is an easy way to advertise, but you must do so legally. SPAM is illegal. Again, do the research and learn the legal way to do your e-mail marketing.

Track and Record

This is something most new affiliates fail to do when they first start out. It is the simple concept of keeping track of where your traffic is coming from and what areas that you promoted to are generating the most sales. In this way you can see where most of your business is coming from and turn up the heat in those areas to generate more sales. Keeping track of your traffic also will tell you what areas you have promoted to that is not generating any sales or low sales. You can then either abandon these areas if you have tried all promotion methods, or increase promoting there. Do your research - there are some excellent software resources to automate this process.

Network With Other Affiliates

As an affiliate, especially one who is getting started, it is a great idea to network with another affiliates. This is especially beneficial if the other affiliate is a seasoned veteran of sales. The amount of information that you will learn from them cannot be read within any book. Make us of the online forums, teleconferences, mp3’s and provided by seasoned veterans of making money online.

With these tips in mind, now is the time to move forward and become the affiliate marketing success story.

Dr. J. Elisha Burke
Burke Publications
Copyright 2005 Burke Publications All Rights Reserved

Dr. J. Elisha Burke, an educator and entrepreneur, has been involved in various business enterprises via Burke Publications. He is an educator, writer and motivational speaker on a variety of topics. Many resources to get your business from idea to profit can be found at Burke Publications websites: http://burkepublications.com or http://news.burkepublications.com

While many people may have you believe otherwise, selling online is not an easy thing to do. Coming up with a great domain name, setting up your website, integrating the whole lot with a payment processor, getting inventory, handling shipping, the list goes on.

It is a great thing then, that affiliate selling came about. What this is is basically you referring customers to merchants. For example, if you point John to MerchantA.com, and John buys some products there, then you get a cut of the profits.

This obviously simplifies the whole process a lot, and allows you to concentrate on marketing. In fact, you might not even need a website to do this, as I will show you later.

What Do You Sell?

Affiliate networks like Commission Junction, LinkShare and Clickbank are one-stop shops where you can find thousands of products from different merchants to sell. In this manner, you will only have to sign up once and you can consolidate payments from different merchants in one cheque!

So sign up with one of these networks and look for products to sell.

Why Isn’t A Website Needed?

While a well-designed and effectively promoted website is always better, it is optional for this method of affiliate marketing, because you simply use Google AdWords to generate relevant traffic to your affiliate links. In other words, you can link your AdWords ads directly to the linking URLs that networks like Commission Junction, Linkshare or Clickbank provide you with.

Signing up with Google AdWords takes only a few minutes and costs only $5 to activate. Don’t bother about any promo codes that the sign-up process asks you for, because they have to be bought, so it isn’t really worth it. Once you’re done signing up, you can start creating your ads immediately.

AdWord ads are in this general format:

Ad Title
Description 1
Description 2
URL

A point to note is that AdWords has two parts to the URL portion. One URL is your display URL, which is the URL people will see appear on your ad. The other URL is your actual URL, which is where your users will go to when they click on your ad. So you can actually just put the web address of the company whose products you are selling as your display URL, and have your affiliate link as your actual URL!

Choosing Keywords

Great! Now you are ready for the next step, which is choosing the keywords that will trigger Google to display your ad. Choose keywords that you believe potential customers will use to search for your product/service. If you have a larger profit margin, you can bid for the more competitive keywords, but usually other just as relevant keywords may be less in demand and cost less. Don’t worry about selecting keywords, because you can have a whole list of keywords to trigger your ad.

This list is not finalised and you can edit your keywords at any point of time. Also, Google works great with your advertising budget since it allows you to determine the maximum cost-per-click you are willing to pay, as well as the maximum daily amount you want to spend in your campaign.

Good luck!

Alvin Poh has been specialising in web development, content distribution, advertising and marketing strategies since 1995. His goal is to provide practical information based upon his years of experience to help webmasters, website designers, and self-employed people achieve their goals in today’s competitive Internet. At his site, you can learn how to make money online.

Currently, thousands of online enthusiasts are taking the plunge and joining the vast community of affiliate marketers. With e-commerce returns booming, and the internet continuing to dominate the business world, becoming an affiliate marketer is a very wise choice. To be successful in this popular marketing trade, it is best to learn the basics of the affiliate marketing business, and realize the sacrifices that will have to be made for your goals to be accomplished.

Before joining any associate program, it is advisable to learn a bit more about the organization. It is actually rather easy to research individual companies, with search engines being one of the primary sources for information. You should be sure that the program has been operating legitimately for several years, and can be properly verified. If the company has just opened, be certain that the owner has good credibility. Becoming an affiliate marketer does not have to be a complex task, but, caution should be used.

A large number of individuals are under the impression that you can earn large sums of money in affiliate marketing without investing a dime. While a majority of these programs are free to join, at some point in your affiliate business career, you will have to invest money. Most likely, this money will be used for advertising and web site promotion. However, in most affiliate marketing scenarios, the amount of money spent will be earned back in time.

Becoming an affiliate marketer requires time, effort and tons of hard work. The more of these qualities you put into the business, the greater amount of success you will achieve. You must be ready to stick with the program to eventually build up your earnings. Affiliate marketing requires you to design a variety of different strategies and methods, ranging from web site creation to product promotion. You are also expected to advertise, as well as keep in close contact with other network affiliates. Be prepared to put in the most time the first few months of your marketing program; once your network is established, the work load will lighten.

While the affiliate marketing system may seem overwhelming initially, realize that you are surrounded by online support. Most individuals who join an affiliate program are new to the internet marketing business. A large majority of organizations have around the clock customer service and support forums for those affiliates in need of advice. Many web sites are also equipped with e-books, articles, tutorials, and tips that make becoming an affiliate marketer just a little bit easier.

With affiliate marketing controlling cyberspace, the marketer has full reign over the internet kingdom. And with this power comes complete success.

Dr. J. Elisha Burke, an educator and entrepreneur, has been involved in various business enterprises via Burke Publications. He is an educator, writer and motivational speaker on a variety of topics. Many resources to get your business from idea to profit can be found at Burke Publications websites: http://burkepublications.com or http://news.burkepublications.com

If you have been longing to start a business online you may be coming across terms you’ve never heard before. You may also have found the opportunities available are overwhelming. Where do you begin?

AFFILIATE PROGRAMS - EASY START

Affiliate programs may be the easiest online business to start running. Why?

With any online business you must have a product or service to sell. First you must create this product or service and then you must be able to fill orders.

Selling your own product or service also means creating a website, learning how to write ad copy, setting up a marketing plan, being able to accept payments online and obviously doing the work. If you’re selling a physical product then you will need to make or buy the item, package it and pay for shipping costs. If you provide a service than you will likely have to start by doing free jobs to build your credibility and then when you are charging for your service you are still limited by how much work you can actually handle.

THE MAGIC OF AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

Affiliate programs are a great way to get started in an online business. In fact there are even some ‘Super Affiliates’ who are making fabulous incomes from affiliate programs. So, what ARE affiliate programs?

Affiliate programs allow you to sell another company’s service or product and make a commission on every sale or lead. You do not even need to build a website or handle the transaction. Your job is to drive traffic (customers) to your affiliate link.

An affiliate link is a special URL code that will identify customers coming to the company’s site from your advertising. It will likely be the website address with a code attached to the end.

Some affiliate programs also have tiers. That means if someone who is interested in SELLING the product comes through your link and signs up you will also get a small percentage of THEIR earnings.

HOW DO I CHOOSE A PROGRAM?

You should research the popularity of some of your interests. Try to determine if people are buying that product or service online. There are many sources for finding that information including free ones such as the Overture keyword tool.

When you have found an area that is popular then type the subject along with ‘affiliate program’ into your search engine and see which programs have services or products for that area. You can also use an affiliate program directory.

When you have found a program that looks interesting you should read the terms of the program. Make sure that payouts are not based on a high commission earning or you may never see your money. Also try to choose programs with high commission rates. Often you will find ebooks and downloadable software has the highest rates as there is no physical product to make or ship. If you are satisfied with the terms then you need to sign up - usually a simple process.

START MARKETING

The reason affiliate programs are so great for beginners is that you only need to focus on marketing - not making - your product.

Many affiliate programs have information on how to market and give you tools such as banners, product feeds and more. You can also look for other information on marketing including writing articles, creating pay-per-click campaigns, commenting in online forums etc. As you gain experience marketing you will make adjustments to your selling and start creating a wonderful income!

Jeff Casmer is an award winning entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and internet marketing consultant with career sales over $25,000,000. His "Top Ranked" Earn Money At Home Directory gives you all the information to start, maintain, and prosper with your very own Internet Home Based Business.

Whoever claimed that poor people would profit in the internet era, was absolutely right. Nowadays, almost all households around the world are connected to the information superhighway, or at least have connection access in schools, offices, cyber cafes or other public places.

Connection is established via either broadband or dial-up, which makes understandable the increasing number of vendors commercializing tangible and intangible goods, and even their intellectual property through new schemes including resale rights products.

During 1999, 17 million American households were shopping online, generating online retail sales of 20.2 billion dollars, and it was estimated that 7 million consumers were making their first online purchase. By 2004 the number jumped to 49 million households spending 184 billion dollars online. With this number of consumers it is not hard to resell products with resale rights and expect profitable results.

The Internet is a kind of counterweight: giving the same access to information to all surfers regardless of their gender, age, religion, social status, nationality, or any condition. The amount of money shoppers spend online will increase significantly over the next few years with the online retail industry reshaping according to the users’ needs.

Retailers and resellers sell all types of tangible and intangible goods, simultaneously through multiple retail channels. From stores to catalogues, call centers, interactive TV, mobile devices, online catalogs, email campaigns and websites.

InfoProducts

Most popular among all those goods is perhaps the reselling of infoproducts as they are the most profitable. The low costs of reselling the goods and the immediate access to all those potential shoppers make it almost a sure thing that profit can be made, if done right. It is after all, a business that can be run with low administrative needs or additional costs.

The additional benefits of resell rights products gives resellers the opportunity to get back the money they spent on the goods with one sale made and the subsequent sales become 100% profits.

Although there are many scams, and get-rich-quick fraudulent schemes, many organizations have evolved denouncing those activities and they keep evolving day by day to grant confidentiality in the purchase and resale of online goods. Reselling intangible products is a real opportunity for serious vendors, merchants, memberships, developers, entrepreneurs or common people exercising their reselling rights.

The opportunity is potentially profitable because people only need basically a computer and access to the internet. For those who use both of them on a daily basis, this activity does not cause extra costs and makes the current scheduled expense more income-producing.

The seeking of the golden opportunity starts with the analysis of these resale product opportunities. You need to find those products offering resale rights as well as the info suitable for your potential shoppers, in addition to the tools to customize the resale rights to your name, and the proper guidance and commitment to your objectives.

According to Forrester Research, to remain competitive in what they call the "Post-Web" retail industry, a striking balance between product offering size and profitability will be the key to keep internet sales growing year after year. Setting your goals and the customers you want to reach may help you to define not only the products you want to resell, but also the amount that you may earn through this activity.

Software Products

It is a fact that software products have much higher price tags than e-books, which means you can generate more profits per sale. But many people just want information, not to learn how to operate new programs or computers systems. Both goods are profitable resale products, both may include or may not include full resale rights or partial resale rights, but the key to success in making money is choosing the right product for the right audience, and promoting it.

You may resell products that literally save humanity or simply help others to achieve a success. Or even teach a specific subject.

You may obtain products with full master resell rights, and at a low cost permitting a huge margin of profits. But none of this will be worth anything if the world isn’t aware of your products.

People who want to resell products must not fail to promote them, either through their own websites, via an mail signature file, or via email campaigns without spamming, or just simply by using the tools that usually come with their resale rights products.

Yes, resale rights products can be profitable if you use some creativity and put together a package that is different from the competition’s. Resale rights prodcuts are currently the rage, but extremely competitive.

If the product you buy comes with a premade sales page, use it but change it enough so it can’t be compared with the competition. Your offering must stand out.

And remember to promote creatively. Having the offering just sitting on your web site will not get you many sales. You must actively promote, if you want to take advantage of the profitability potential. Of all the methods to use, joint ventures has the greatest potential. We’ll talk more about it another time. Good luck.

copyright 2005

Fred Farah
Best Affiliate Products
and Niche Market Strategies for Maximum Profits
Resale Rights at Best Affiliate Products

Recruiting people for your business opportunity or paid program by promoting a referral link is an obsolete concept. The idea of making money through affiliate programs is brilliant and is possible, if done correctly. However, there are some severe problems with affiliate marketing. The major online companies give everybody the same site to advertise. The only difference to that site is the person who will get credit for the referral.

The company will tell you if you promote this affiliate link, you will receive a commission check. I know you have heard something like this: “The more cash you make, the more money we receive.” By them just giving you an affiliate link, that last saying looks like this: “The more money you spend, the more money we receive.” By companies improperly training you, they are ripping you off, which violate that major pillar to success, company integrity and management. That is not the only problem with affiliate marketing. When I release this secret people have been using to be productive online, these greedy online companies are going to hate me after letting the ferret out of its cage. The #1 thing affiliate programs fail to do is teach people how to brand their name.

Branding your name is so vital to your online success that it determines whether you are going to make a successful living or whether you are wasting your time online. So Mr. Wilson, what does branding your name means. Branding your name means establishing credibility and trust with your customers due to a product or service in demand that your have that your customers are in need for. Why do you think that artists such as Nelly, Eminem, and 50 Cent keep getting their songs played on the radio? These artists know that in order for them to keep having multi-platinum selling albums; they must make sure everybody hears their song. I know your next question is, “Mr. Wilson, how can I brand my name?

Here are some simple but yet powerful ways to brand your name:

1. Writing Articles. Writing articles is one of the most dynamic habits you can develop to promote any business opportunity or product that you have, especially on a zero budget! If you want to brand you name using articles, you want to write about something that you know about and something that is valuable to your readers. In other words, educate them. For example, Jon Olson, a hit exchange specialist has products for advertising such as the Hit Exchange Survival Kit and the Dr. Traffic Co-op. He does not instantly sell to people off the street, he does not know. He educates people by writing his newsletter, Hit Exchange News. When you write valuable content, you must add your personality into whatever you are writing because, not only do people want the truth, but also they want it in your own words. When you write valuable content and add your personality into it, your readers will be more likely to buy your products and services. Educate first and then sell. There are resources such as Ezine-Writer and Ezine Success.

2. Become A Heavy Participant By Joining Forums A forum is a place over the Internet where people post their thoughts on a topic and actually collaborate. Joining online forums such as the Net Marketing Forum and the JoeShmo200 Internet Marketing Forum is a great start. What makes the difference is how much you participate in the forums. Let people know that you are serious about your online business by participating in discussions, asking questions, and bringing up topics of your own. If you do not participate in the forums on a regular basis, you are burning your bridge by showing laziness on branding your name somewhere. Branding your name in the forums is very easy and once you get started, it will take you a long way.

3. Splash Page. A splash page is a customized, instant-loading webpage that promotes your paid affiliate program. The purpose of having a splash page is to grab an individual’s undivided concentration and see if they notice something different. Having a splash page is a good start, but how do you brand your name using a splash page? The way to do that is to put any of your personal pictures on the splash page so that people not only remember your articles, but remember your face. In addition, what would help your splash page is putting your contact information on the splash page because people may contact you if they have a question. Make sure you are of help to that person who contacts you because some companies are too busy trying to get more and more referrals.

If these companies start teaching people their affiliates to brand their name, they will be in business longer and be more successful. When they rip people off and focusing on fast cash, they are setting themselves up for bad publicity like Enron. I hope these solutions help your and your business. Can you afford to go back to an unrewarding, insecure workforce?

Paul Wilson is a second year college student and network marketer who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. To have a look at a home business opportunity that believes "The Greatest Music Is Money", visit Paul’s website at http://www.profitableadventure.info Also, you may contact Paul at dcbillu@aol.com

There are certain affiliate principles that are common to all extremely successful affiliates. These principles are not plainly stated by these successful affiliates; rather, they are found as characteristics in their work, writings and interviews.

I have synthesized these principles into a list I call The 7 Principles of the Successful Affiliate. It important to note that each successful affiliate closely and meticulously adheres to each one of these affiliate principles.

Some of these principles may seem ridiculously obvious, but you would be amazed at how many affiliate marketers either…

-don’t know these principles (failure to read and study)

-skip or skimp on them (take the easy or cheap route)

-or, ignore them altogether ("I’m going to do it my way.")

…resulting in their own failure or greatly diminished profits. If you are involved in affiliate program marketing and want to greatly improve your results, you must learn and follow these affiliate principles.

1. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires work. You must treat it as a job. It is not a pastime. It is not a hobby. It is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It is not a "do nothing, make money" proposition. It requires hard work on your part. The harder you work, the more sales you will make.

2. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires financial investments. You must be willing to spend money to make money. You need to spend money on professional training resources, affiliate products for "first hand knowledge", a well-planned and executed website, and solid advertising and marketing strategies. If done properly, your investments will make you huge profits.

3. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires education and preparation. You must tap into professional training resources. You need to read and study the proven models. With knowledge of these, you can replicate the success of others and increase your sales.

4. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires knowledge of the best affiliate products and merchants. You must closely examine the pros and cons of each you consider. You need to determine which ones will benefit you the most. Quality increases quantity of your sales.

5. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires a well-planned and executed website. You must satisfy your viewers and the search engines. You need to gain high rankings and presell your viewers with content-rich information. If you do this properly sales will increase.

6. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires constant traffic interested in your message and effective tracking methods. You must attract huge numbers that stay on your website to read your message. You need to know what methods work well and which are wasting your advertising dollar. Happy viewers from reliable sources bring you more sales.

7. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires ongoing familiarity with the latest strategies and techniques. You must keep up to date on the cutting edge in the industry. You need to never rest in your quest to be the best. Knowledge is power; power brings you more money.

These are The 7 Principles of the Successful Affiliate. If you are not prepared to implement them to the best of your ability, you are wasting your time as an affiliate. Do something else! If you are ready to be successful, make a copy of these affiliate principles and affix it to the wall right next to your computer. It will serve as inspiration and a reminder of what you want to accomplish.

Jim Guinn is a Home Based Business Consultant and owner of Morpheus Marketing Associates, LLC. Jim has been helping home based business owners establish, maintain and grow since 2003 and has just recently launched a new site devoted solely to training affiliate program marketers. (http://www.TwoPercentClub.com). You can write to Jim at Admin@TwoPercentClub.com.

Copyright © 2005 – All rights reserved. You may reproduce this article on your website, newsletter or ezine as long as you include the brief byline with active links and this copyright statement.

Not all Home Business Entrepreneurs are experienced enough to produce their own product, so most of us ‘would-be-entrepreneurs’ become affiliates, marketing someone else’s products and opportunities. That is nothing to be ashamed of. Lots of people make a really great living doing it, and so can you.

Being a Work at Home Business Entrepreneur is not as easy as it first appears. Don’t get me wrong, it is not that difficult either. As the saying goes "anything is easy if you know how". The BIG secret is learning "how to market" on the Internet.

Internet Marketing is a little different to marketing offline. You sell your online products and opportunities from an electronic store called a website. When you open a store in a Mall or in a busy town you can rely on walk-in trade who see your goods through the shop window and want to buy. With a website store, the concept is a little different. You have to take your store or its products and place it where the people are likely to be - traffic exchanges, safelists, search engines, electronic magazines etc.

Selling your affiliate products should begin even before the customer clicks on your affiliate link or the banner on your web site. Don’t only rely on placing a banner on your web site with the hope that someone will click on. It may work a few times but it is not the best way to produce good results. The best results are achieved when the customer is already sold on your product before he clicks on your affiliate link. Write a good ad copy that does not obviously seem like you are selling your product. Entice the customer to click on your link with words that would make you want to buy the product, or join the opportunity yourself.

Use the products you plan to promote yourself so you can market them enthusiastically and do not be afraid to use testimonials from enthusiastic customers. They work wonders!

Concentrate your efforts on choosing a few good affiliate programs and marketing them effectively. Choose a program with products or services that interest you. Do not be lured into signing up for numerous affiliate programs in the hope that one of them will make money. Choose wisely and try not to get involved in selling things you know nothing about. Don’t try to sell heavy duty equipment if you know what HGV stands for. Go with your passion, your enthusiasm will grab your client by the nose and lead him/her to your affiliate link.

When you have chosen your affiliate company, build a site to market the products and programs you’ve chosen. Choose a name that is relevant to your affiliate program and the products you plan to sell. If your site is built to sell craft items then selling car parts on it is not a good idea. It would be far better to include a short course on how to make craft items. Keep your site relevant!

Read everything you can about your products and research them thoroughly so you can answer all the questions you get asked either by the people signing up under you or your customers. Look around for other items to sell or give away that will enhance the products or services you sell. If your main focus is affiliate marketing you could include products and free gifts and e-books that will help with marketing the products you sell.

Create a catchy signature to use each time you send out your mail, you never know whose interest it might stimulate. Don’t forget to include your affiliate links in all your outgoing mail. Market, market and market your products some more. Think about what your target audience is looking for and keep it in mind always.

Janice Sharman currently runs The Sure Profits Center. Get ALL the Home Business Internet Marketing Information and Resources You’ll Ever Need to Profit on the Internet! Subscribe to her ‘Secrets To Sure Profits’ Newsletter at http://www.profits4sure.com

Affiliate Internet programs have been used by many online entrepreneurs to develop a secondary and some times main source of income.

Affiliate programs have increased in popularity because of the online marketing tools that are increasingly available to affiliates.

While in the past an affiliate had to resort to spending hundreds of dollars to bring visitors to his affiliate link, there are now plenty of tools that will enable him to bring these visitors for free.

For starters, an affiliate can build a content rich website. A content rich website can attain many natural, or free, search engine listings.

When surfers see the listing they can click on it and visit the affiliate’s site.

This is traffic is completely free, and therefore very lucrative to the affiliate.

Another tool is in the form of free advertising software. This software will allow an affiliate to place millions of ads for free with a click of a button.

Sites such as www.billionfreeads.com offer software that automates the process. An affiliate can now use this software to promote as many of his affiliate programs as he wants, and as often as he wants.

Other tools that affiliates can use are pay per click search engines such as Overture and Google.

While there is nothing new about these search engines, what is new is the lower minimum bidding introduced by Google.

An affiliate can now bid as low as .01 per click. This means that if an affiliate needs to attract 500 visitors to make a sale, as long as the commission is over $5 he will make money.

What if he only needs to attract 100 visitors to make money? His profits will be 500% higher.

Affiliate Internet programs can work for affiliates, provided that affiliates use the tools at their disposal to effective market their affiliate links.

Donny Lowy is the CEO of a new affiliate program resource,

http://www.affiliatebandit.com

After having chosen several programs to join, you probably realize that customers won’t knock on your door - you have to come to them. By promoting your affiliate programs successfully, you build your own success!

So what should you do to promote your affiliate programs? Here are five methods which have succeeded for millions and can succeed for you, if you choose to follow the same steps as those millions before you!

#1 Create your own marketing affiliate program materials.

Many people use the marketing materials provided by the program they signed up for. Guess what? Thousands of people are using those same materials, those same ready-made websites and those same advertisements. People are easily bored and those ads get old really, really fast. Create something brand new and all your own!

* Create your own promotional website instead of using a stale, pre- packaged website. This is not very expensive and the returns can be huge!

* Create your own brochures and pamphlets. Whether using email or mailing materials to prospects in the old-fashioned way, be sure your material is fresh and new.

* Create compelling business cards. The business cards you hand out to contacts that you network with should also be fresh, new, and cause the person reading the card to feel compelled to contact you. A simple byline such as "Information on Becoming an Overnight Success" can be all it takes to make that person call you for more information.

* Write original articles and submit for publication to ezines for exposure of your fresh material.

#2 Generate Leads from an Opt-In Email List

Sure, you can buy names from email lists, but are those people even interested in the type of product you have to offer? Probably not! Create an opt-in mailing list by allowing prospects who come to your website to choose to receive a free newsletter. This gives you the opportunity to include information in the newsletter about your products. Why is this the best way?

* Allows contact with people who have at least some interest in the product you are promoting on your website

* Generates mailing list for future products you may promote

* Saves tons of money compared to buying mailing lists!

After all, think of all those flyers that come in the newspaper. What do you do with them? If you are like most people, you throw them away because they don’t pertain to you. If all the flyers in your newspaper were placed there because you, personally, had expressed interest in them, you probably would read them all! This is the difference between random mailing and mailing to prospects that share an interest in your product type!

#3 Network, Network, Network

Never miss an opportunity to network with others who may have an interest in your products, or even be interested in joining the affiliate program under you.

* Share your own success story with others you encounter. Many will be interested in joining you in your endeavor.

* Offer to mentor new prospects to ensure their success.

* Exchange business cards and make follow-up calls to encourage them to talk with you further about your programs.

#4 Use Blogs to Promote Your Programs.

In the past year, blogs have become extremely popular. You can use this forum to your advantage in promoting your affiliate marketing programs.

* Generate top-quality content to place on the blogs.

* Be sure that the blogs you choose are not over saturated by affiliate marketers already. Locate fresh blogs to use in your promotions.

* Content should compel the reader to action. Make them HAVE to check out your program.

#5 Use banner exchanges to your advantage.

Most marketers know that banner exchanges can help them promote their products, but there are a few tricks to success.

* Make sure your banner is placed on sites that will attract the same client base that will desire you product.

* Create attractive and compelling banner content. Plain-Jane banner ads won’t attract, those that send acompelling message to act will!

* Always look for new places for your banner to appear. Don’t become complacent because you have three or four sites showing your banner. There are new websites every single day!

These five tips will help you successfully promote your affiliate programs. There are many other ways to promote products, but these are proven to work for people who dedicate themselves to ensuring their programs get the necessary exposure to succeed.

This article was authored by Jason Gazaway. This 22 year old, ‘regular’ college kid was able to quit his 7-4 "job" because of his affiliate marketing business. He now wants to help others and show you how he did it!