You should have heard about affiliate marketing, it is one of the low cost ways to make money on the Internet. Anyone can earn income through affiliate marketing regardless of their experience in internet marketing, as long as they have the passion and patience to learn and work on affiliate marketing.
This article will provide you 9 important basic tips for succeeding in affiliate marketing.
1. Select a specific niche. Make sure that there are affiliates already making money in the niche as this indicate that the niche is profitable. Then join affiliate programs that are offering products or services appeal to the niche market. It is suggested not to join too many affiliate programs at the beginning to avoid losing focus.
2. Do research and investigation on the affiliate programs before joining them. You should only join rewarding and reliable affiliate programs. The products must be targeted to your niche market and in good quality so that you are able to promote and sell them with less refund rate.
3. You can promote affiliate products without a website. But, it is highly recommended that you build a niche website with interesting content focuses on promoting your affiliate products.
4. Create a budget for your marketing campaigns. Know clearly how much you want to spend on promoting your website and affiliate programs.
5. Traffic and conversion are the keys to generate affiliate commission. You will need to spend most of your time to learn and work on these two aspects. So, be prepared to work hard.
6. Your potential buyers often need supporting information before buying an item. You may write reviews about your affiliate products and ‘how to’ articles with your affiliate links included in the content. This is one of the effective ways to direct your visitors to your merchant’s site and make a purchase.
7. For long-term profit in affiliate marketing, you have to build a list. Some of the methods you can apply to grow a list are offer free gift, free newsletters, free e-courses and participating in a give away event. When you have a opt-in email list, you can regularly contact your target prospects and recommend your affiliate products to them.
8. Your credibility is important. You should often send helpful and interesting information to your opt-in list subscribers. Provide your real name and an email address on your website so that the potential prospects know there is a real person behind the website and contact you anytime when they have question.
9. Most affiliate programs allow you to recruit affiliates under you (sub-affiliates). You will earn more commission if you grow your own network of sub-affiliates. If you have found a few hard working sub-affiliates, you can expect to share a steady commission from the affiliate sales generated by them.

Source : make money