Many new affiliates see all the ebooks, forums, blogs and websites stating they can make money within a short amount of time using affiliate programs, only to find out that effort (many times a lot) is needed to obtain the super affiliate status. Remember even the people who are super affiliates started out as beginners and had their share of mistakes. So if you want to become a high money making affiliate, you can’t quit. It just take time.

I recently saw a posting in a forum where affiliates go to share ideas, tips and ways to help make money online. Anyway this poster stated he had gotten into the affiliate marketing arena and was not making any money so he was going to throw in the towel.  After a few postings from other people trying to help this person, the original poster stated they have been working on an affiliate business for about 3 months.

3 months? That is still just a beginning.  There are people who have been doing it for years and still not making the kind of money that they thought they would be.

So what went wrong?

1. Internet marketing network – are you using all of the social areas to help bring targeted traffic to your site? Getting the word out about the products you are promoting?

2. Free stuff – On your blog or website are you giving away free information? No, not just the ebooks and such people can find all over the internet, but original helpful ways to help people solve the problems that they have, and then, of course, by using many of your products you are promoting.

3. Collecting e-mail address – are you compiling a list of e-mail addresses on your blog or website?  If you are, are you using these e-mail address to generate additional (or first time) sales for products you promote.   If I sign up for a newsletter at a website, I sure don’t want to receive an e-mail every day saying “Buy this, Buy that…ect” Give me a good reason to want to purchase from you and not one of your competitors.

4. Tracking your affiliate links – Many affiliate programs have the ability to let you track your affiliate links. You can even put the same link on different pages of your website, see which page is doing better after a time. If page A has more clicks than page B, try to figure out why? More relevant? Maybe your link need to be in a different place on page B or even though page A and B goes to the same product page, maybe you need to change the wording a little on the page B link.

5. Contact the affiliate manager of the merchant you are using – These managers (most of the time) will help you anyway they can. They can be a fountain of knowledge to help you figure out what may work on your product promotions. They know who the super affiliates are and what has worked for them. Don’t overlook contacting them for help.

6. Useful content – does your website have informational/useful/unique content on it to help people deal and/or solve their problems or is it just a web page with links going to all different types of products that you are promoting?

If you have a website and it just does not seem to work, maybe if needs a face lift?

Even though my create a website tutorial is geared towards beginners learning how to build a website, sections of it may help give your website a new beginning.

I am sure the super affiliates did not get there overnight. They put alot of time and energy into what they were doing. Don’t get me wrong, Yes, you can earn money being an affiliate for merchants and some pay better than others but it still takes time to see what works and what doesn’t.

I saw an e-book (free) the other day that said this person made TONS of money as an affiliate and they will give you a free report on how to do it. OK, Ok, I had to see this report. As I read through the information, I understood very quickly how they were making all this money…….using underhanded and all ways that went against the rules of the merchant they were using to make all this money. They even said that it is breaking the rules, but HEY! they are making all this money……who cares!

This may be true, but if you would do these ways, how long before you get caught, get thrown out of that merchant’s program and then have to start over? I guess (to me) it is not worth using these tricks…I would rather treat my affiliate programs as a business and build it up over time to make sure that in years to come I will have money coming in and not have to worry about if I would get thrown out of the program because of being against their TOS (terms of service). If you build up your business right the first time, you could enjoy monthly income for years to come.

I am not saying people that are doing the underhanded, spammy things are bad…..that is their choice and for all things that make the world go around….But I would rather do it right the first time instead of having to try and keep one step ahead of my merchant’s eyes or the search engines.