A vast majority of successful online entrepreneurs are affiliates of successful websites on the net. This is what has continuously attracted many people into joining the ranks of affiliates.

Still most of the folks involved in affiliate programs are unsuccessful and hardly earning anything from it. Here are some common mistakes made by most people joining affiliate programs. Anybody who can try and avoid them will have a higher chance of being successful as an online affiliate.

a) Expecting to do no work and still make money

This has to be the number one reason for failure amongst new affiliates. And the blame for his has to be shared by hype peddlers on the net who make wild claims to attract interest. This seems to be rather infectious because even promoters of some respected affiliate programs end up giving this impression to folks in their promotion material. Matters are made worse by the fact that really successful affiliates seem like they hardly get any work done, which may be true to a certain extent.

Let’s out the record straight. There is a lot of very hard work at the beginning if you want to be a successful affiliate. However, once you’ve gotten your business going, things become a lot easier and the amount of work you have to put in decreases dramatically.

It is like putting up a block of apartments. The initial work is killing but once the building is complete and you get tenants in, the work reduces substantially to just getting the rent collected.

b) Always looking for the better deal

Some affiliates spend most of their time looking for a better deal when it would be better spent promoting their current program. We all tend to procrastinate things as much as possible and there may be a tendency to do anything but not get on with the work. Resist it, stop looking for a better deal and get down to promoting you current program.

c) Joining a program where you do not earn money from affiliates you introduce

It is important that you ensure your program pays you for affiliates you introduce and not just for the business that you bring in yourself. This will impact on your future earnings and is a way of maximizing on all your efforts.

d) Joining programs where you do not have any interest or expertise.

It makes a lot of sense to start with what you know before you move to the unknown and unfamiliar territory. This is why the first affiliate programs that you join are very important, choose them carefully. Later when you start making something, you can get adventurous.

e) Not having your own independent website

Most good affiliate programs will provide you with your own site to help you promote the program. However successful affiliates usually have their own site which they use to promote their affiliate programs. There are several advantages of doing this. The most important is that you are able to build an opt-in email list from some of the visitors you will attract to your site. This list can be used again and again to promote your current affiliate program and others that you may join in the future.

Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com and http://www.lowpricedomains.com with experience in the website hosting industry.

Rosalind Gardner’s 270 page ebook "The Super Affiliate Handbook" is the "Holy Bible" of affiliate marketing. It’s also surprisingly well written (I’ve seen some real junk passing as informative writing) and logically steps through each of the 15 chapters, all but the Introduction building on the previous in an easy to understand style.

You feel Rosalind’s sense of excitement as she makes the transition from an hourly paid job as an air traffic controller to a home-based, self-employed Internet marketer. And who better to learn from than someone who has done the hard yards and discovered through trial and error what works? Rosalind’s approach is a methodical one: design - test - evaluate - redesign - retest, until her method proves efficient and effective.

From an overview of Internet marketing, a discussion about whether you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur and work from home, she moves to the minutia of setting up shop. This includes sound suggestions about the types of software you need to make life easier and do the job properly and thinking about your business budget. (Yes, you do need a budget)

Next, she explains how to research profitable ideas. That’s right, there’s no "build a site and they will come" mentality here … it’s all scientific; find a profitable product or service first. Rosalind provides a rich harvest of details about the various affiliate networks and explains how to choose products and programs that are most suited to you and your intended income goals. There are also two paragraphs on programs to avoid and programs to drop. This is a very comprehensive coverage overall and goes into details about affiliate agreements, commission, when and how you get paid, whether there is a fee to join the program, how long cookies are valid for, and much, much more.

Now, here’s the best part. Not only does the author give an in-depth coverage of affiliate programs, but she provides heaps of very sound advice about choosing a domain name for your business, the benefits of themed sites as opposed to mini-sites, planning your web sites, building and optimizing your sites to turn clicks into customers, and 29 ways to promote your affiliate business. This is all stuff that will be of use to ANY Internet marketing business.

Just the links to the dozens of resources in this ebook are worth the cost. For example, Rosalind has found and overviewed numbers of links to fora about affiliate programs and affiliate program managers where you can join once and sell goods and services from multiple vendors. There are free ezine article directories (like this - Ezinearticles.com) and directories where you can list your universal resource locator (URL).

In Rosalind’s work, it’s difficult to find a negative unless you take into account the thickness of her book when printed on single sheet paper ie, 1 3/4" (just joking). Really, this is one of the few ebooks worth every last cent. It contains all the advice you need to research, set up, run and optimize an affiliate program. The content is also relevant to drop shipping (where you sell other’s products, but they handle fulfillment).

Although I have been selling my own ebooks and affiliate products online successfully since 1998, I found many new tips and tricks in this book that I could incorporate into my daily routine to improve my bottom line. You will too.

If you’ve never felt the joy of opening your inbox to see several email messages telling you, "You’ve Mad a Sale", it’s an experience you should consider. It’s not just about money of course, although at the end of the day, we all must eat. It’s also about the satisfaction of knowing that the products you sell are of value and that you were able to write a sales blurb that convinced someone of that value.

Whether you are retired and looking for a second income, a supporting parent at home all day, just feel like you’d like to try something new, or desperately need to give your day job the flick, "The Super Affiliate Handbook" will help you all the way.

Published June 05. Copyright Robin Henry 2005

Robin Henry is an educator, human resources specialist and Internet marketer whose firm, Desert Wave Enterprises, helps individuals and businesses improve their performance by using smart processes, smart technology and personal development. He has a number of tertiary qualifications including a Master of Education degree majoring in education technology and online learning. He lives at Alice Springs In Central Australia. Visit Desert Wave Enterprises to read more about this ebook and its contents.

In the early days before the internet was born, starting a business was like taking a giant leap into the unknown. Aside from the involved time and money, it also causes lots of worry. However, if you are fortunate enough, for sure your business was a success, but then there are many who were doomed to failure. Thanks to the internet because it has evolved and those who failed might have the chance to make it.

Once someone starts his search on the internet for a business on which he would make money, the most probable thing that catches his attention is an affiliate program. Perhaps, it is for the reason that affiliate programs say Free to Join. But though it’s free to join, you would still have to upgrade and pay a monthly fee once you are registered.

Its main mission is to refer others who will sign up and create your downline. Only those that upgrades will be of use to you, and once you begin to get commission, your monthly payment should be taken out automatically, leaving you free in building up on your commissions.

But what is an affiliate program? Affiliate program can be defined as internet marketing system where a company allows and helps third party websites, which are called affiliates, they post link and refer clients in return for a pre-determined flat-fee or percentage-based commission. The concept of affiliate program is based on the very old business practice of referral service which is very common in many industries. Like for instance, an attorney gets a certain percent of commission if he refers a client to another lawyer.

Today, affiliate program is considered as one of the most effective ways of online marketing of products and services, second only to direct mail. As a matter of fact, in this year, 21% of all online sales will be generated from affiliate sites promoting an affiliate product, that is according to one marketing research company. One of the most renowned affiliate programs is the Amazon.com, they became successful which encouraged other to follow the suit.

What are the ways or tips to follow to succeed in any affiliate program? Well, there are several aspects or factors involved in building a successful affiliate program. The first and the most important is to make your affiliates your equal partners because they will be doing 90% of the work.

Writing up your affiliate page and making it easier for your affiliates to promote your products will be of great advantage to you as well. If visitors are coming to your site and spending time reading your page, it only means that they like the content of your pages.

It is also important to know your product, never ever advertise for a product or affiliate program that you are not currently with. Don’t just start promoting an affiliate program because they offer favorable commission.

Always remember that if you want to make money through selling a product or providing service, make sure that you are using it, you have knowledge about it, to be able to convince your prospects that they should have it. If you yourself do not believe in it, then expect that you will have a hard time convincing anyone else it is valuable.

Another is that when promoting any affiliate program, watch out for traffic leaks. And what is a traffic leak? It refers to something on the merchant’s site that causes the visitor that you have referred to their site, get distracted leaving the merchant site, leaving you also with no possibility of receiving any kind of commission. You can also offer a free supply of materials like article, e-books, programs and a whole lot more.

Bear in mind that your success depends a lot on your choices and you work alone. Don’t blame the program if you get disappointed about not becoming successful, instead think of it as a lesson. Have a thorough research of what you could be doing better and how you could be making progress every day. There are some who do not pay any cent at all in endorsing services and yet they are still able to succeed. If they can do it, there is no reason why you cannot do it.

About The Author:

Discover how you can create a turnkey internet marketing system that builds massive downline for you, attracts hungry prospects automatically, and generates income non-stop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Find out more here: Visit How To Become Successful today!Discover how you can create a turnkey internet marketing system that builds massive downline for you, attracts hungry prospects automatically, and generates income non-stop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Find out more here: Visit How To Become Successful today!

What is a good converting site?

Well they say a “good” converting site is one that sells 1 in 100 visitors.

Now once you’ve chosen which affiliate program you want to promote using Google Adwords you may be thinking “well I’ll just let it run for 100 clicks and if I don’t make a sale I’ll give it the flick”.

But that wouldn’t be a “true” test of whether it is a good converting site or not. You see, it doesn’t just happen at every “100”. You may get to 170 visitors without any sales whatsoever then BAM BAM BAM 3 sales in a row.

My recommendations for testing an affiliate program using Google Adwords would be to find a few keywords that not many people are using (you can do this simply by thinking of some keywords YOU would type in if you were looking or this product), if there is 7 or less ads on the sponsored side then that means you can get those keywords for 5 cents and still make the first page.

You can also check to see how well those keywords do over on overture simply by going to: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ and typing in the keywords into there. The numbers that appear aside the word is how many times that keyword was searched in overture for a month.

If it’s getting searched over in overture then it’s likely that it is being searched in Google at a higher volume.

So now you’ve got yourself a few test keywords at 5 cents each… I would let it run for at least 200 clicks before considering whether I would keep it or flick it. It may take a couple of weeks to reach but that’s perhaps the safest and cheapest way I know of to test. That way you’ve only blown $10 if it didn’t work out.

If it converts nicely then I would put it in my “keepers” pile and do the research to add another 200 to 300 keywords to get it profiting for me nicely.

© Joanne King - http://www.anxiety-panic-free.com/freemoney.html

Get your Internet Marketing Ebook and sign up for our free Internet Marketing Newsletter here at: http://www.joesy.com

You are welcome to reprint this article on your website or send to your mailing list however all links must stay active. Cheers =)

Affiliate Marketing is a very lucrative business online, especially where it concerns Affiliate Internet Marketing.

Today I bring you some rare and everyday mistakes that are keeping you from making a killing with affiliate marketing.

The most common mistakes made by most online marketers :

1) You build a really flashy website and is wondering why your not making commissions.

Well, I do believe this one belongs in the number one position, because, it’s the killer amongst new comers to the affiliate marketing game.

Don’t believe that if you build it, they will come. Your visitors have to know where your website is, and online as well as offline, you have to do some kind of promotions.

Just don’t build it, but go out and educate yourself about what it really takes to make it with affiliate marketing.

The points that follows, will give you ideas for getting yourself known as an expert in your field of expertise.

2) Not Posting And Hanging Out In The Forums.

Do you know that all of the top marketers online can be found in some forum online. Yes, it’s true.

The forums are where you can go to post questions pertaining to your problems. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, you can find a forum online that meets your needs.

There are huge archives of posted questions from other marketers that you can browse through. The forums are where you can go to post questions pertaining to your problems. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, you can find a forum online that meets your needs.

Do you know that one very informative topic on a high traffic forum can generate 500 or more hits that same day?

3) Your Not Promoting Any Big Ticket Items.

Now, don’t get me wrong here, I am saying that you should promote both high-end as well as low priced products.

But, the tough part is that you need to sell many more low priced products to make a $100 dollars, while selling just one high end product gets the same results.

4) Thinking That You Don’t Need To Know Any SEO Tricks.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization is not as difficult as it seems. I am by no means a search engine expert, but I do know what is needed for optimizing my pages so that I can still benefit from all the FREE Search Engine traffic.

Go out and get yourself a SEO book, you only need one, they are all very similar. You just need to know how to write pages that the search engines loves.

5) Never, Posting Articles To The Articles Directories Online.

When I realized the power of posting articles, I was stunned by the amount of traffic I was receiving fro just one article I posted.

Just start by posting a article per week, you will be generating a constant ever increasing flow of visitors to your websites.

6) Not Building You List And Automating The Follow-Up process.

As the saying goes "The Money Lies In Your List". That is so true, if you can build a small list, you will be able to start making money with a list of just 500 members.

That is why your online business can’t survive without a automatic responder. If you can’t capture your visitors once they are on your site, then they are gone, lost in cyber space, off to the next web site that can solve their problem.

7) Your Not Involved With A Network Marketing Program Online.

I can hear your cries, but If you followed the 6 points described earlier, you will now finally understand why network marketing goes hand in hand with affiliate marketing.

Most, if not all online marketers use some kind of automatic responder or ad tracker service that has a residual program. That is the way to get some residual income from your list while promoting your ad tracker or automatic responder.

If, your not with an ad tracker or automatic responder service that pays residual income, then your loosing affiliate commissions.

Ask yourself, what can implement now from this article?

I do hope you can be honest with yourself and realize why your not making it with affiliate marketing, now, go out there and build your list. Just do something different.

About The Author

Alexander Marlin, Ebenezer St. Maarten A.N.
Is a firm believer that you can reduce the cost to build a website by using the cheapest hosting online.

How do you choose the products you buy? Do you simply accept as gospel truth all the good things a merchant says about their own product? Or, do you ask your friends’ opinions and look for independent product reviews before opening your wallet?

If you’re a savvy consumer (which of course you are), then you put more stock in your friends’ opinions and independent product reviews.

As affiliate marketers, we become much more successful when we approach our site visitors as friends and take the attitude that they too are savvy consumers.

From that standpoint, an affiliate’s real work is to pre-sell our merchant partners’ products by writing fair and balanced reviews, also known as endorsement letters.

Sure, writing a review for each product takes a little time and effort, but it’s an activity that sets the super affiliates apart from their less-super counterparts in terms of rewards… read ‘income’.

Product reviews can be either stand-alone or comparative. The first type focuses on a single product, while the second is an evaluation of similar items that allows readers to choose which product best suits them.

Before you begin to write a product review, you’ll need to evaluate the product. (Nothing like stating the obvious, eh?)

I prefer to endorse products that I’ve actually used. However, buying a product isn’t always feasible. If that’s the case, affiliate managers will often grant ‘proven’ super-affiliates access to products for their review. That’s especially true of information products and services that are delivered online, such as internet dating services.

But what if you’re not yet a super affiliate, and can’t fathom a basement full of treadmills to review for your exercise site?

Well, do what your customer would do if product reviews didn’t exist on the Internet - go to the store and test those treadmills out!

And how do you review acne medications for your skin care site if you don’t have acne? Surely, you have some friends with (previously) pimply-faced teenagers… ask them to tell you what worked for them.

If you can’t find out that way, search Google for "consumer reviews" + "acne medications". Read as many as you can to come up with three to five effective products (that have affiliate programs).

Once you’ve collected information about the product, it’s time to start writing that product review.

The structure for a product review is simple, containing an introduction, overview and summary.

The introduction consists of a few sentences outlining the problem and introduces a possible solution for the reader, without going into detail. The overview describes the product’s promise, a description of how the product is used, as well as its effectiveness and value. The summary is almost a repeat of the introduction, and contains a strong recommendation for purchase based on your conclusions.

To simplify the review-writing process, I ask myself the following questions when writing product reviews for my own affiliate sites.

1. Who is my reader and what is their problem?

2. What does the product promise?

3. How well does the product solve the problem? What does it do? How does it work?

4. Does the product offer good value? (Would I buy this product?)

Let’s look at each question in turn.

The first question asks, "Who is my reader and what is their problem?"

If acne is your reader’s problem and your site visitors are adults, you probably want to avoid terminology like ‘Zap those zits!’ and use more age-appropriate language.

Remember too, that ‘zits’ aren’t really the problem. The real problem is how your reader feels about having pimples all over their face and how that affects their life.

If you’ve experienced the problem yourself, say so. Describe your experience, and show understanding and compassion for the reader’s plight. Speaking from real experience earns your readers’ trust which always improves sales rates.

If you have trouble figuring out how your reader might be affected by his problem, then you can research that online too.

For example, I searched Google for "hate acne" and came across Acne.org, where one young woman lamented, "My sh%tty skin is seriously ruining my social life and my relationships with men. I’m avoiding it all just cuz I don’t want to show my face. Its really sad. I also spend a lot of money on make up. I’m not even asking for the most perfect skin (even though it would be nice) but even if I was limited to just a couple zits….and then it would take me under 30 mins to get ready….I would never be home, and I would go back to living the life that I ohh so miss."

That gives you a pretty clear picture of how she feels, right?

Now address those concerns using emotive terms and you’ll improve your conversion rates.

Here’s an example.

Rather than say, "Product A will cure your acne", start with a question that appeals to your reader’s emotion, such as "Is acne ruining your social life? Scared to leave the house - or even show your face? There IS a solution to your plight."

That introduction brings us to the next question which is, ‘What does the product promise?’

Does the product cure the problem? Does it work faster, or with less hassle and expense?

You found answers to that question during your product research. In this section you simply summarize your findings.

Next, answer the third set of questions, "How well does the product solve the problem?", "what does it do?" and "how does it work?" based on your product research.

Results are the most important information, so it’s not necessary to provide nitty gritty details about how you use the product or what it’s made of or how it is packaged, etc. unless the merchant does not supply that information on their site, and you consider the information of importance to your reader.

Too, we’re all aware that no product is perfect, so don’t go overboard and write a completely glowing, one-sided review. To make the product review balanced and fair, detail what you do and don’t like about the product. If you want to avoid negative statements when outlining your dislikes, try phrasing the sentence like "although I’d prefer a slightly less greasy formula…" or "although the bottle lacks a pump dispenser…" and finish on a positive note.

Lastly, make a value statement. For example, "While Product A and B both eliminate most acne problems in 30 days, Product A wins our ‘best value’ award priced at $20 less per bottle. Or, if you’re writing a single product review, you could say something like, "Acme’s Acne Product would be great value even at twice the price, but at this price it can’t be beat!"

For even better conversions, be sure to include a product graphic on your product review webpage, and a testimonial or two from users that you solicit through your site or use with permission from your merchant partner’s site.

In summary, tell your visitors what you would say to a friend if you were telling them about a product that you found and liked. That approach will make writing reviews easier and your friendly attitude will push your conversion rates through the roof!

Article by Rosalind Gardner, author of the best-selling "Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People’s Stuff Online". To learn how you too can suceed in Internet and affiliate marketing, go to: http://NetProfitsToday.com

Link bypassing is the number one trap affiliates fall into online. Also known as the "affiliate links theft". This "piracy" costs hard working affiliates promoting programs both time AND money. First, let’s do some simple math if you please:

Say that you are a beginning affiliate. Your income may be $100 per month. Does this sound reasonable to you? It is an example anyway…

So, referring to the study case, you may be losing 100 x 0.30 = $30 per month in sales.

This is $30 in pure loss Each and Every month that’s passing by without you protecting your links.

Or, let’s say you are an active "power charged" affiliate. In this case, your income might reach $2000 per month.

Your loss in sales is 2000 x 0.30 = $600 per month. Hmm…

Finally, let’s suppose you are one of those "super affiliates"! Your monthly income is at least $10.000. Let’s do the math again.

Your loss is 10000 x 0.30 = $3000 each month! Ouch!

Get the picture now? It is up to you to estimate your own losses — I don’t mind if you send me your stats. So I can do the math for you

Seriously. You know how harmful "link theft" is for any affiliate, I have to tell what exactly it is.

So. What Is Exactly "Link-Bypassing"?

You definitely know that your earning commission is in the link you have received from the owner of the affiliate program — a.k.a the merchant. In other words, you get your money when you make a sale - Assuming you have joined a "pay-per-sale program". And precisely, you earn money when your visitor ‘clicks’ on your own link and make the purchase!

Right?

If done properly, the visitor hits your link. A cookie (or any other tracking system) will be deposited in their computer. After that, the merchant program rewards you as the sale referrer. So your account is credited immediately. And you receive an e-mail telling you that you have just earned a commission. Fair you said!

Well, that’s the best scenario.

"Link-bypassing" happens when the visitor knocks at your website and notices the service you are promoting. And then she figures out the service "home URL" and specifies it into the web browser’s address bar directly…

In this case, no cookie was deposited in the prospect’s computer. And that means NO referrer… So YOU get NO MONEY.

Huh!?!

You Have Just Been Bypassed!

Unfortunately, this happens everyday and it will continue for the years to come because most of the marketers are not aware of it. Note that this also applies to referring 2nd-tier affiliates. As people want to be at the top of the tree. And they just don’t want to be another member in the downline. Even if it is fair because you worked hard to achieve that!

Am I right?

Don’t get me wrong, "link-bypassing" may be the consequence of a deliberate action of a pirate. But it may also be an innocent action from a curious prospect. It is a fact, curiosity is a human nature. And you, as an affiliate in the Internet, you have to work with it! So if you please, let me take you by the hand, and show you how you can deal with link theft.

How Can "link-bypassing" Be Possible?

Because the link you receive when you join an affiliate program may look like one of these:

http://www.site.com/page.cgi?username=yourID
http://www.site.com/?YourID
http://site.com/index.php?referrer=yourID
http://site.com/index.php?sponsor=yourID

All of the affiliate links listed above have got a flaw.

Here it is. Your ID number (or username) is clearly mentioned and the merchant website is quite obvious! Right? The average visitor can figure out the merchant website easily. And this is not good news.

In fact, the status bar from the web browser shows the URL link when the mouse cursor is pausing over your affiliate link. And it’s at the reach of a "Copy & Paste" operation.

Here is the solution…

The alternative to this, is to add a piece of HTML code to your affiliate link. Actually, it should include this code inside:

onMouseOver="window.status='’;return true"

You can see my website for more details.

What have we done so far? The web-browser’s status bar will remain empty to protect the URL. Okay, that is a good one!

But there is still another dirty trick to get access to your affiliate link. Here it is: Visitors can open the context menu from your link and hit the "Properties" command. Form there, a dialog box would appear and tell them your exact URL

And there is even another way to your affiliate link: Viewing the source code of your web page…

But, the most important thing to keep in mind is this:

In a "link-bypassing" case, you (the affiliate) are the ONLY losing part in the transaction! Because the merchant gets the payment in full and the customer receives the product he/she has paid for. BUT your commission is simply discarded… Will you continue to stand there and take it?

Don’t you think it’s time to take action and get your share of the profits you deserve?

All the links in this Article were checked and verified on August, 10th 2005

Get a FREE Consultation with the Author to Help You Protect Your Website and Increase Your Sales. Download the Website Protection Software Tool. No Code Knowledge Required. And it’s FREE. Request download links and instant detailed information! mailto:commission-saver@sendfree.com

Clearly, the people benefiting the most from affiliate programs are the companies running them. My goal here is to help you - the affiliate - earn more money. If you’ve gotten past the idea that you can simply slap a banner up on your site and start earning money, but you’re not sure what to do next, this article is for you.

Allow me to cut right to the chase. Here is a plan of action. This may seem like a lot of work, but don’t worry! At the very end, I’ll show you how to automate all of these steps. For now, just read through to get a general idea of how you need to proceed:

Day 1

Step 1- Vow to organize your affiliate efforts. Begin with organizing all contact information, payment information, and vital statistics about your affiliate programs in one central location. This may seem like a silly step, but believe me; you don’t want to spend your time digging through emails for contact information and codes. You should also know, with just a few mouse clicks, how much is owed you by the various affiliate programs in which you are participating.

Step 2 - Select one affiliate program on which to focus your efforts for the next 3 weeks. In order to apply some of the various principles I will show you in a few moments, you need to select one area of focus. It’s best to select an affiliate program that has several products, instant online tracking of sales, instant notification of sales, and the ability to segment your promotions. Internet Marketing ProShop has all of this and more.

Step 3 - Select three promotion methods and two products to promote.

This is crucial. This will make sense in a few moments. If you can’t think of three promotion methods, here are a few ideas:

An ad in someone else’s eZine

A mailing to your own subscription list

A text link on your site with some ad copy

A banner on your site

A product review on your site

An FFA submission

Now, some of these methods are more effective than others. But you don’t need me to tell you that. I’ll show you how to find out for yourself.

Step 4 - For each promotion method and each product, develop two ads. So, since you have three promotion methods, two products, and two ads for each - you will have to write 12 ads total. So, for each ad, let’s give it a code. If it’s method one, product one, ad one, you can call it:

M1P1A1

For method one, product one, ad two, you can call it:

M1P1A2

For example, if you plan to promote my marketing course 1,001 Killer Internet Marketing Tactics using ads in someone else’s eZine, you will need two ads. One would be M1P1A1, and the other would be M1P1A2. If you also plan to promote it using a review on your site, the first review would be M2P1A1 (method 2, product 1, ad 1) and the second would be M2P1A2 (method 2, product 1, ad 2).

This is just one way to code your ads. You can do this any way you like as long as you can distinguish precisely which campaign these codes refer to.

This sounds like a lot of writing. Don’t be daunted by this! Just crank it out. Don’t think too much about each ad. We’ll find out in a while which one is good and which one is bad. You won’t decide this - your customers will! Don’t be afraid to try something wild.

Now, when you promote each product, you’ll need to tie each promotion to the code you created. With the Internet Marketing ProShop Partner program, you can segment your campaigns by adding an _code to the end of the URL you use to promote each product.

For example, if you are promoting 1,001 Killer Internet Marketing Tactics, you would use this URL:

…./kt.cgi?sponsorID

To segment your campaigns, you would add your campaign code on the end of that URL for each campaign:

…./kt.cgi?sponsorID_M1P1A1 (for campaign one)

…./kt.cgi?sponsorID_M1P1A2 (for campaign two)

Note: The above method is only valid for our affiliate program, so don’t try this with any other affiliate program. We don’t know of any other affiliate programs that allow you to segment your campaigns, this way, so please use caution here.

Step 5 - Before you finish for the day, promote the product using your "ad 1" for each product.

You’ll need to record:

Impressions. If you’re advertising on a web page, this will be the number of times your ad appeared on the page - or the number of times the page was viewed if your ad comes up each time the page is viewed. If you’re advertising using some form of email, impressions = number of emails sent.

Clicks. You should be able to get this from the affiliate program you are promoting.

Amount Earned. Again, your affiliate program should provide this information to you in real time.

Now, in order to do a valid test, you’ll need to promote to a fairly significant number of people. I would recommend that at least 300 people see each ad. Otherwise, you won’t have enough information to make a valid judgment. Ideally, you should hit about 2,000 with each ad, but your resources may not allow for this.

*Learning point: If you’re going to send an ad via a newsletter, see if you can run a "split". That is, get one ad sent to 1/2 of the list and another sent to the other 1/2. That is the most accurate way to compare the effectiveness of any pair of ads.

Day 2

Step 6 - Run your "B" ads. Now that you have run your "A" ads and have given them a bit of time to take effect, run your B ads. Do this first thing this morning!

By the end of the day, you should have some good results from both campaigns to compare and see where you stand.

By comparing and analyzing all of the information you have just compiled, you will be able to start to have a good idea about:

Which product seems to sell more. Which type of campaign is most effective Which type of ad for each campaign is most effective This short bit of testing won’t allow you to make clear conclusions, but it will put you on the right track. Immediately, you should start using the ads that sell as much as you can. If ad A is making you 5 cents per impression and ad B is making you 5 dollars per impression - using ad B just increased your affiliate commissions by 9900%! OK, that’s a dramatic example, but you get the point, right? If you aren’t tracking these things, you’ll never know. If you track and continue to refine, before you know it, you’ll have an arsenal of ads that you know pull well to use over and over again. Once you do the leg work, it’s easy!

As you see, though, this can get quite complex. How does one actually analyze these campaigns? What if you have scores of affiliate programs and quite a few campaigns for each?

Don’t worry. As I told you at the beginning, there is an easy, cost effective way to keep track of all of these things with just a few mouse clicks. It’s called Affiliate Assistant.

I highly recommend checking this out as it will, among other things, allow you to quickly and easily implement the above plan in one central location. With just a few mouse clicks you can compare and analyze all of your various affiliate ad campaigns so you’ll know which are making you money and which are wasting you time.

You could do all of the same things yourself with a good database program and multiple spreadsheets, but Affiliate Assistant will save you quite a bit of time and money without having to go through all that.

Either way, you should implement some type of organizational and tracking plan like this for your affiliate advertising efforts immediately. The amount of time you put into this will pay off exponentially in terms of higher commissions.

Mark Joyner is the CEO of http://www.markjoynerseminarvideos.official.ws To quickly and easily start using free viral traffic building as he recommends in this article, we recommend you get a copy of these seminar videos.

There are literally thousands of affiliate programs on the Net. Here are eight important points that every affiliate webmaster should take into account when choosing a reliable and profitable affiliate program. How to choose a reliable and profitable affiliate program

With literally thousands of different online affiliate programs, ranging across hundreds of different categories, it’s not difficult to see how one may become discouraged when it comes to choosing the best and most profitable affiliate programs out there. After all, since one is going to be investing a considerable amount of time, money and resources to design, build and promote the site, then one would naturally want to ensure its success by joining and promoting the most reliable and profitable affiliate programs available.

When it comes to choosing a reliable and profitable affiliate program, keep in mind the following points:

(1) How long has the business been operating?

If the business/site has been operating for a considerable amount of time, then it’s likely that it is fairly stable and profitable, otherwise it would not be in business. Be careful of sites and affiliate programs that spring up overnight. It is always a good idea to monitor such affiliate programs for a while before joining them, just incase they disappear as fast as they have appeared.

(2) Who else is promoting the affiliate program?

Try to find out who else is promoting the affiliate program. Visit the websites of your competition and see if they are promoting the affiliate program that you are thinking of joining. If you find a super affiliate promoting the affiliate program, then chances are that it is a profitable program to join, otherwise a super affiliate would not be promoting it at all.

(3) How much traffic is the website receiving?

Popular, successful and profitable websites receive a considerable amount of traffic. If the site you are thinking of promoting is not very popular, successful or profitable, then chances are that it will have low traffic and therefore may not be worth promoting. Check the alexa.com traffic rank of the site.

(4) What is the commission structure?

Does the program offer the affiliate webmaster a percentage of the sale, or a fixed amount per sale? Is the commission payment recurring? Is it a one tier or multi tier program? The most profitable programs offer a revenue share income. This means that the affiliate webmaster will receive a percentage of the money which the customer spends. For example, if the affiliate program offers a 50% revenue share commission, and the affiliate webmaster sells a product for $50, then the affiliate webmaster’s payment should be $25. Profitable programs also offer recurring payments for the life of the customer’s membership. In other words, if the customer continues to pay $50 per month for his/her membership, then the affiliate webmaster who referred that customer should receive $25 per week until the customer cancels his/her membership. Finally, a multi-tiered affiliate program is usually more profitable than a single tiered affiliate program because it enables an affiliate webmaster to generate income from the efforts of another webmaster whom he/she referred to the affiliate program.

(5) Read reviews about it.

Try to find as many reviews about the affiliate program as you can. The affiliate program may look and sound very attractive until you find a string of negative reviews from its former affiliates warning others not to join it for one reason or another.

(6) What is the support department like?

Do the support staff answer queries promptly? Are they fast, friendly and helpful? Test the affiliate program’s support staff by asking them a few questions about the program.

(7) Do the statistical reports work?

Be weary of statistical reports that do not update. Find out how often the statistical reports are updated. Test your links by clicking on them yourself and seeing if they register in the statistical report.

(8) Minimum commission payment

Some affiliate programs require an affiliate webmaster to generate a minimum commission amount before receiving payment. This is fair enough since it would not make much sense to send an affiliate webmaster a check for a few cents when it would cost more to write, send and process the check. However, find out what the minimum commission payment is before you join.

There are a number of other things that one can look for when searching for the most reliable and profitable affiliate programs available, however, these are the main and most important points that every affiliate webmaster needs to pay attention to.

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Have you been lured into online business and internet marketing with promises of the gold you will find at the end of the rainbow? And ended up spending much more than you make each month, and wondering how these marketing gurus make money, if at all?

You aren’t alone – there are thousands of people out there who buy various kinds of info products on how to become rich and say goodbye to their day jobs. The irony is that they are still stuck at their day jobs, working even harder to make up for what they have lost month after month in their quest for online profits. Their goal of firing their boss seems a dream more distant now, with their credit cards maxed out with all the online spending they did, searching for the elusive pot of gold.

Actually, it is not the marketing gurus who are at fault. Each one of these products are quite good, and do give some really worthwhile information. The problem really is the fact that there is a mass of information, and you, like others, get confused about which one to follow, and end up making a confused series of efforts.

For example, if you are into affiliate marketing, you try to jump in as an affiliate of various products which are unrelated to each other, and start promoting the affiliate programs haphazardly. End result? Lots of spending on various programs without focus, leading to little or no sales, with just the hole in your pocket to show for your efforts. The hole becomes bigger with every program you promote, jumping from one to another in the hope you will see the light at the end of the tunnel, one day.

What then is the right way?

There is a way. But it is not the get rich quick kind of way. We need to be clear on certain concepts first:

a. Whatever affiliate program you choose, choose one program which will also have some backend products which you can sell.

b. Think of your affiliate product as a product serving a niche market. The creator of the product has already researched the demand, judged if people spend money buying products in this niche, and created the product. You don’t need to re-invent the wheel.

c. Create a content based website around this product, and dig into affiliate directories to find other products related to this product. The content of your site will be just promoting affiliate products you find, giving useful content and leading to your visitor clicking your affiliate links.

d. Be sure to go for products which supplement the main product, rather than compete with it. This would enable you to sell more backend products after your first sale.

e. More importantly, there are two classes of people interested in this particular niche. The ones who haven’t bought this product will buy this first. The ones who have already bought this product earlier will get interested in the other supplementary products, and end up buying them. Result? More money streams for you.

It is clear that you really do need a website of your own before you can actually make worthwhile money selling other people’s products as an affiliate. The website enables you to

a. funnel your target audience

b. give them products they are searching for, and want.

c. Capture their mail Ids so that you can continue your selling efforts to the ones who don’t buy the first time.

d. Continue to sell your supplemental products to the ones who did buy, and

e. Makes visitors regard you an expert on the subject

f. Most importantly, gets you free targeted visitors from the search engines.

So, forget about other means of promoting your affiliate product, and focus on building a website around the niche represented by the product. Be sure you sign up as an affiliate only for products which give you a reasonably decent earning per sale, so you make money faster.

Your success in this will depend on how well you create your website, with the content flowing naturally into leading the reader to click through your affiliate link, and of course, the strength of the sales letter in the merchant’s website.

Swaminathan
http://www.bestebooks.org