The Top 5 Affiliate Program Tips

 
Do you go through affiliate programs like most people go through pairs of socks? A lot of Internet marketers certainly do. In fact, 97% of all Internet marketers never make a single cent advertising opportunities on the Internet. They jump from one opportunity to the next and never see results.

If you want to break free from this cycle of failure - if you want to earn a living off of your Internet ventures - continue reading. I will tell you exactly how you can earn money from any legitimate affiliate program.

In order to get the most information from what I am about to explain to you, you must accept that these methods are not intended to be "secrets." These are scientifically-proven, best-practice methods that all top marketers use.

If you want to achieve top results from your affiliate programs, here are a few great tips:

1. Know your product. Do not advertise for a product or affiliate program that you are not currently using yourself. I cannot even count the amount of affiliate programs and product offers I have rejected immediately from people who know very little about what they are actually promoting.
   
   If you want to make money selling a product or service, you have to use it, understand it, and be able to convince your prospects that they should own it. If you yourself do not believe in it - because you have not even tried it - then you will have a hard time convincing anyone else it is
   worthwhile.
    
2. Be an expert in your field. You must continually become more knowledgeable about the market in which you are selling your product or service. For instance, I try to read at least 50 pages on Internet marketing each day to complement the marketing I do. This keeps me learning about my field. The best part about this is that you can do it without spending any money at all.
   
   The Internet is chock full of free content sites where you can find free ebooks and special reports on virtually any topic. The Internet is also loaded with affiliate program promoters who are out-selling you. Use Google to find these sites and then reverse engineer them - analyze the source code, page setup, and content presentation to find out how you can become more like your most successful competition. 
    
3. Focus your efforts while limiting your innovation. As much as "limiting your innovation" may go against your business instincts, it is an absolute must with a limited marketing budget. Figure out what works for you scientifically by measuring your advertising results.
   
   When you find something that works, stay with it! If you're receiving a decent amount of targeted traffic from reciprocal links, continue to add more of them. If you're getting a large number of leads from your newsletter, improve your newsletter and order more leads.
   
   Don't allow yourself to stray too far from your original plan. Preset the amount of innovative ideas you want to try out each night, but center your marketing efforts around getting better results from methods that have already worked for you.
    
4. Spend your funds wisely. The Internet is loaded with scams and plain bad information. It's very easy to be tricked into wasting money on "get rich quick" schemes and information that you can find for free.
   
   I myself have spent thousands of dollars that I didn't have to spend. Don't get me wrong -  I am certainly not saying there are no legitimate affiliate promotion services or information products out there. What I am saying is that the vast majority of them do not work as well as they say they do. So hold onto your cash.
   
   When you find a product that multiple people have personally recommended to you, then consider buying it. Otherwise, conserve your cash for purchasing services or products that will produce hard, definite results, such as email leads for your newsletter or phone leads you can contact personally to promote your program.
    
5. Always remember that your own success is dependent on your own choices and your own work. If you get upset about not becoming successful with a specific affiliate program, don't blame the program, blame yourself. Perform a thorough analysis of what you could be doing better and how you could be making quantitative progress each and every day.
   
   There are lots of people who do not pay any money at all for promotional services, yet they are still able to make a good living just from using free tools on the web. If they can do it, there is no reason why you can't too!
   
   Joining an affiliate marketing group or forum in your field will help you realize this reality. Seeing and talking to people who are succeeding in your field will remind you that it is entirely possible to make money online without having a million dollars to begin with.
   
   While there are indeed a few "secrets" to getting more sign-ups and website traffic, the most important part of affiliate marketing is simply following a sound business plan.

If you keep the five concepts I have listed above central to your marketing campaign, you will not fail. But, if you continue to market sporadically - switching from product to product and method to method - you will never break out of that 97% who never make money.

About the author:

Isaiah Hull is the publisher of Home Business Tips, an interesting newsletter that focuses on building successful internet businesses and promoting affiliate programs.

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