**AVOID THE DEADLY MISTAKES THAT MOST AFFILIATES MAKE!**

RULE #1: Go for QUALITY!

Remember that any recommendation you make will reflect

directly on you. If you recommend a good quality product or

service that is reasonably priced, your customers will

continue to trust you and be interested in future

recommendations that you make. If your customers have a bad

experience with a product or service that you recommend,

however, they will likely hesitate to act on any new offers

you send them.

So be sure that you do your homework before recommending

anything to your customers. Try the product or service

yourself. Talk to other people who have bought it. Make sure

that you are recommending a high quality product that comes

from a company who offers great customer service and who is

reputable enough to back up what they sell with a strong

guarantee.

Don't ever promote something that's going to hurt your

reputation!

RULE #2: Look for a program that offers TOP COMMISSIONS.

It is perfectly reasonable for you to EXPECT TO BE PAID 20% TO

50% OF THE PROFITS on each product sold -- 5% to 10% is really

low. Ultimately, you should look for companies who understand

the "lifetime value" of new customers you send them, and who

appreciate your efforts enough to compensate you generously.

For example, here at eye4products, we pay

over 25% of our sales to our affiliates, so they earn

$35 for every virtual product display sold through their link to our site.

This means that after we've covered such costs as page design and

programming the display, customer service, credit card accounts,

hosting fees and other expenses, we actually pay our affiliates over 60% of our net profits.

Why are we willing to pay such high commissions? Because we

recognize the *lifetime value* of each new customer our affiliates send us. Only consider joining programs that offer a similar level of respect for their affiliates.

RULE #3: Make sure they have a HIGH SALES CONVERSION RATIO.

When joining an Affiliate Program, make sure that the site is

turning a reasonable number of visitors into sales. If

they're not, your efforts directing traffic to their web site

will be completely wasted.

Look for sites that have at least a 1% conversion ratio (i.e.

1 out of every 100 visitors buy). Check out their web site

and their sales copy to see if it "makes you want to buy."

After all, while it's your job to send them targeted traffic,

it's their job to turn these prospects into paying customers.

RULE #4: Match the product or service to the THEME OF YOUR

WEB SITE.

If you sell golf clubs, then you shouldn't choose affiliate

products like weight loss pills to promote on your site. Your

customers see you as a golf expert -- not a weight loss

expert. So it makes sense that while they will be very

interested to learn what brand of golf bag or golf balls you

recommend, you are going to lose their trust and respect if

you start trying to recommend weight loss products to them.

Find out what your target market is looking for and then

choose affiliate products that meet their needs while

complementing your own product or service.

RULE #5: Be sure that you're GETTING CREDIT FOR ALL OF YOUR

SALES.

Find out what kind of tracking software the Affiliate Program

that you're interested in joining uses. You want to go with a

company that uses quality affiliate tracking software that is

reliable and tracks ALL of your sales.

Why I emphasize "all" is because you want to make sure they

track online, phone, fax, and snail mail orders. Many

companies only track online orders, and this means that you

will never get credit for anywhere from 5 - 10% of your

affiliate sales!

Also, make sure the Affiliate Program you join uses "cookie

tracking" because this helps to ensure that you will be

credited for the sales of people who don't buy the first time

they visit, but come back later to make a purchase.

RULE #6: Look for programs that allow you to ACCESS ALL OF

YOUR SALES STATISTICS in Real Time.

Real Time statistics are important because they allow you to

see how different banners, text links, and recommendations are

doing. For example, on your site you might discover after

some testing that a banner on your resource page doesn't pull

nearly as well as a personal recommendation under your

newsletter subscription box.

Based on what you learn from your Real Time sales statistics,

you can adjust which banners and text links you use and where

they are placed.

RULE #7: Look for a program that TEACHES YOU THE *BEST*

TECHNIQUES.

A good Affiliate Program will provide you with everything you

need to be successful. They'll provide you with traffic-

generating banners, text links, and recommendation letter

templates. And they'll also tell you which techniques work

well in which circumstances.

Because their success is linked with yours, the Affiliate

Program you join should be ready, willing, and able to teach

you everything you need to know to START EARNING EXCELLENT

COMMISSIONS.

***MOST IMPORTANT RULE***

Avoid falling victim to the "Flea Market Syndrome"!

It's absolutely critical that you don't allow Affiliate

Programs to clutter up your main site or the main goal of your

page. Don't go crazy and start promoting 10 or 15 different

affiliate products on your site, thinking that if you can make

a lot of money by joining 1 affiliate program, you'll make

even more money by joining 10. Your site will end up looking

like a giant flea market!

You'll come across as unprofessional because it will look like

you are trying to make a quick buck rather than do your

visitors a "favor" by recommending one or two really quality

products. The most profitable way to approach Affiliate

Programs is to CHOOSE ONE REALLY GOOD QUALITY PRODUCT and promote it to the best of your abilities.

This is the approach that top affiliates are using to earn commission checks of $4,000 to $8,000+ each month! 

Now granted, these affiliates have high traffic sites;

however, this same technique is earning our "average"

affiliates $1,000 to $2,500 every month! That's how powerful

focusing your energy on promoting one product can be!

And of course, once you've MAXIMIZED YOUR PROFITS with one

affiliate product, you can choose another and start the

process all over again. Don't choose 10 programs and try to

promote them all at once. This doesn't work. More is NOT

always better! You will devalue your site and destroy your

credibility by coming across as "greedy" rather than

"helpful."

Remember that just because one vitamin a day is good for you,

it doesn't mean that 5 or 10 are even better! If you promote

too many Affiliate Programs on your site, you'll end up

confusing your visitors because your web site will lack focus.

They'll be overwhelmed and just click away… and you won't end

up making any money at all! So remember to stay targeted!