It is hard for new affiliates to get a proper start in affiliate marketing without being bombarded with numerous crap offers. When most new affiliates decide to join the industry they do what every other person does that is starting a new job, they research and try to learn as much as possible. This is where is becomes difficult to separate the crap from truth.

Why New Affiliates Fail

New affiliates fail because they are buying into something existing that worked for someone else. I still get offers for ebooks, software, free seminars, ect. on how I could make $1,000,000 just like Mr. $$$ did. They might even show you pictures of their house, boat, car, or whatever to show you that they are rich because they did this. The problem is that whatever that may be, it probably doesn’t work anymore and if it did, so many people are doing it right now that you are not going to make squat compared to the time and effort you put in.

Another reason affiliates fail is because they get scammed into paying for something that is already free or that they shouldn’t have to pay for. Read my story about Dan who was new to affiliate marketing and almost lost $250 he would have to pay to join an affiliate program. No affiliate program should ever charge you to join their network or to advertise their product.

To learn more about common mistakes new affiliates make, I suggest you read my article Top 10 New Affiliate Mistakes.

You can also search Unmastered Affiliate for more great tips and resources on becoming an affiliate marketer.

One big mistake new affiliate marketers make is paying to join an affiliate program. This is commonly know as a pyramid scheme or a scam. It is usually very enticing and promises to make you rich. The fact is that the only person getting rich is the guy who came up with the scheme.

Take for example Dan, he approached me about three months ago and wanted to learn about affiliate marketing. I gave him lots of advice and resources (free) to learn more. He said he had just gotten back from doing a seminar with Mr. $$$ and that I should check it out to. he gave me the information and I told him I would check it out. The next day Dan calls me back and says he would like to have a conference call with him, me, and Mr. $$$. At first I really didn’t want to do it, but I wanted to support Dan as much as I could. So two hours later I am on a conference call with all three of us and we get talking about Mr. $$$ product and how it is going to “Revolutionize the Industry” and the rest of his sales pitch. Then came the time for me to ask questions. I didn’t care to much on what he was selling, but the way he was selling it. He wanted me to pay him $250 to join an elite network of sales people to sell his product. BIG RED FLAG New affiliates take notice, no network, affiliate program, or any company wanting you to sell their stuff should ever charge you any fee. Not even for a membership or “exclusive” deals. I kept asking him about this and he tried to explain it but I kept reminding him that no company I have every represented or worked for charged me to join them. To make a long story short, he finally gave up and said “I was missing out”.

The point of the story is that you have to be very careful on what you promote and who you work with. They can be very convincing. You NEVER pay to join a network or affiliate program! If you do, it is more likely a scam or some sort of pyramid scheme. Stay far away.

If you have a website selling a niche product and you are thinking about expanding and starting an affiliate program you have two choice; create your own in-house affiliate program or join a network. It’s a tough decision to choose between. I recommend to do both if possible.

Benefits of Joining a Network

There are lots of reasons to join a network and the biggest reason is exposure. You will instantly be exposed to thousands of affiliates looking to promote offers. If your product is popular or has a good conversion ratio then more affiliates will run your offer. If your offer is mediocre or doesn’t convert well then you will have a harder time finding affiliates to run your offer.

Another advantage of working with a network is that you hopefully can have a “Super Affiliate” run your offer. A super affiliate is what every network dreams of, an affiliate that has a high level of traffic and brings in a lot of conversions. Most super affiliates stick with one or so networks because the networks take good care of them. Having a super affiliate run your offer means you will see a lot of traffic.

Most importantly, a large benefit of joining a network is having someone else manage it for you. This leaves you more time to manage your site and focus on sales.

Disadvantages of Joining a Network

Joining a network means fees, it will cost you more money to join an affiliate network. Besides paying your setup fee which can sometimes be upwards of $5,000 you could be paying 25% more CPA. For example, the networks service fee is 25% and based on the commission amount paid to the Affiliate. So if the Affiliate is paid $10 commission, the network will receive $2.50. The total cost to you is $12.50.

Another disadvantage of joining a network is that some, not all, CPA networks push lots of spam. CPA networks gets their money through the performance of their affiliates so I know quite a few are pushing affiliates to make a sale/lead/etc without much ethical concern. This could come back to hurt your product and your reputation.

Depending on your product you might be better suited to join one of the larger networks or stick with CPM or Adsense style advertising. It would be better not to judge CPA networks as a whole, but research some individual networks, and see who comes out clean.

Benefits of an In-House Affiliate Program

Using your own in-house affiliate program allows you to customize it to suite your website. Having your affiliate program branded with your website logo and having the design and layout match your website will make it look more professional.

You will also be able to offer your affiliates more ways of promoting your product, like off line advertising, special discount codes tailored to certain affiliates.

One of the biggest reason to have an in-house affiliate program is search engine ranking. By having an in-house affiliate program every affiliate link generated is with your websites url. When your affiliate links to your website this creates a back link which will help your Google page rank and search engine ranking.

Example:

Network Link: http://www.network.com/afclick.php?o=9199&b=gmzmrt0y&p=0009&l=1

In-House Affiliate Program: http://www.yoursite.com/?Ref=398

Also, with in-house affiliate programs you have the option of link structure for affiliate links. Here is an example of the top three link structures you might be able to use. This varies depending on which affiliate software you use or if you create your own.

Example:

http://www.yoursite.com/?Ref=398

http://www.yoursite.com/398.html

http://www.yoursite.com/?398

With in-house affiliate programs you have 100% control over your affiliate program. You can review each affiliates contact information and check it for fraud or contact them individually and offer them special incentives for promoting your product.

Disadvantages of an In-House Affiliate Program

The biggest disadvantage is time spent on managing your in-house affiliate program. It takes a long time to setup your affiliate program. You will need to have a powerful server to handle all the traffic as well as create your own banners and advertisements.

Another big downfall of in-house affiliate programs is that you are limited in exposure to affiliates. If your affiliate has never heard of your product then they are not going to find the sign-up page to promote it.

What To Do

If you are going to go with a network to promote your products I suggest you visit our list of affiliate networks to find an affiliate network that is suitable for your needs.

Affiliate Network Software

JROX Affiliate Software

DirectTrack (Most Expensive)

If you are looking to buy software we encourage you to contact us we would be happy to help you select the affiliate software suitable for your needs.

If this is your first time running an affiliate program website, it can be a bit confusing. Is your site designed the right way to attract the right customers? Is my web content good enough? Am I using search engine keywords the right way? It can be a lot to handle if you’re new to affiliate marketing.

One thing that you can do to help yourself master each and every affiliate program is to simply talk to the company that you’re linking to. It sounds simple, but most affiliate marketers just set up a site, toss in some content and links and forget about it. They don’t go that extra mile that can mean the difference between selling a few units and selling a bundle. Here are a few tips for helping to boost sales on your affiliate marketing website.

• Before you go to your seller, set up your site for a month or two and record the traffic and sales you are able to do. That way, when you go to the parent company, you can say, see, this was what I was doing, and these are the sales I got. No one knows the product you’re trying to sell better then the company that sells it. Use this knowledge to your advantage. Maybe the company you link to just finished an internal study that shows that people are especially fond of a particular benefit of the product your selling that you don’t even know about! If you write your content around this benefit, you might see your sales double or even triple.

• By talking to the parent company, you’re sending a clear signal that you are taking this affiliate program seriously. And trust me, the people in charge will take note. Recent affiliate marketing studies have shown that over 90 percent of all affiliate sales come from only 5 percent of affiliate websites. If you can end up in that group, you’ll be making money faster then you ever thought possible.

• By keeping in contact with the parent company, you can stay up to date with any sort of product changes, price changes, shipping rule changes or any other information that might impact in content of your affiliate website. Nothing will anger a customer more than a promotion on your website saying that if a customer clicks here, they will receive free shipping, only to have it not be true. By staying connected to the parent company, you’ll always have the most up-to-date promotion info.

The benefits of befriending the parent company of your affiliate programs is vital to running a good business. You owe it to your customers, as well as yourself, to have the latest, most accurate information on your site at all times. Respect your customer base and they will reward you with loyalty that will pay off big.

The world of affiliate marketing is full of opportunity. There are very few jobs in life that take such little effort that can lead to such big rewards. But as is the case with most jobs, what you put into it will closely reflect what you get out of it.

So, how can you maximize your time as well as your dollars? Here are a few tips to point you in the right direction when it comes to picking out the affiliate marking opportunity for you.

• You gotta believe! One of the golden rules of affiliate marketing is that if you don’t believe in the product, how do you expect the people you’re steering to it to believe in it? You can’t. You should only choose a product that you like, a product you have tried and found to be of good quality and maybe even a product you actually use! Remember, you have two choices when you set up your affiliate website, you can just toss a bunch of links on a page and hope people click on them, or you can create a cool page full of great and interesting to read content on the product your linking to. If you’re trying to write content about a product you think stinks or isn’t a good buy, it’ll show. The more passionate you are about that product, the better your chances are of making money.

• Knowledge is the key! This one is a bit tougher, but it’s becoming easier by the day. There are, simply, thousands of affiliate marketing opportunities out there for you. And even better, almost all of them are free, so you have a pretty good selection to choose from. The second golden rule of affiliate marketing is to choose a product that you know a lot about, or, at the very least, a product that you can talk a lot about. Need an example? Say you’re in an affiliate marketing program with Amazon.com. It would probably help your site if you’re an avid reader (if you link to the book section) or if you can do album reviews (if you link to the music section.) This is good advice even if you aren’t linking to an online superstore. If you are linking to a candy company, provide some content about how candy is made or who invented it. If you’re linking to a company that makes skateboards, talk about Tony Hawk or the X Games. Getting people to read your content and convincing them to click on that link and to buy that product is the whole point of affiliate marketing. You’ll be much, much more effective if you are knowledgeable about what you’re trying to sell!

Affiliate marketing is a gold mine waiting to be picked. The amount of money you can make is staggering, but you can make a lot more if you follow the golden rules. By being passionate about what you sell and being knowledgeable about the field, you’ll convince many more folks to click away and buy.