Why Some Affiliate Marketers Hardly Make A Living Online December 12, 2012

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways for you to make money online. It's a great business model and allows you to start earning literally with no money down. Not only that, you can build a 5 or even 6 figure income in your spare time just by working a few hours a day.

Affiliate marketing can be a minefield if you do not know what you are doing. Sure, you can use trial and error, but if you want to succeed as an affiliate marketer then you need to take a short cut and learn from the mistakes other affiliate marketers make so you don't repeat them.

Perhaps the most common mistake an affiliate marketer makes is to promote a product that doesn't sell. You may think you've found the best product in the world, but if it isn't actually selling, you won't make a dime. You need to check any product you decide to promote and make sure it is actually going to be bought by people.

Often this means checking the sales letter to ensure it converts, making sure other marketers are promoting it and so on. If you are not getting any sales after a while then perhaps you need to think about picking a different product to promote.

Another common mistake is that people decide to promote products that pay peanuts for a commission. Promoting a product that is only going to make a couple of sales a month and make you a few bucks just isn't worth your while. If the product is going to make lots of sales every day or there are backend commissions to be earned then sure, promote the product, but otherwise ditch it and find something that is worth your while.

Watch out as well for any website where they are capturing email addresses rather than making sales. Many people will capture email addresses but don't capture the affiliate details at the same time. This means that when you make a sale through the email address, you don't get credited and don't get paid. Always watch out for this one as it can cost you some good money!

Many newer affiliate marketers make the fatal mistake of targeting keywords that are too competitive and too difficult to get ranked for. This means that you will struggle to get traffic to the offer that you are promoting and make sales. Yes, keyword research takes time, but if you skip or skimp on this step you will struggle to get traffic and then to make sales.

A lot of affiliate marketers also don't understand their target market. This may sound like a trivial step, but if you have a good knowledge of what your target market wants then you are going to be able to give it to them in the form of articles. This will help you to get interest in your articles, get them read, published and further distributed over the Internet and make you more money!

These are just some of the most common mistakes people make when they start out as an affiliate marketer. If you can avoid these mistakes it will help you to take a short cut to success and make money online. These mistakes will prevent you from making as much money as you could do as quickly as possible. Avoid them and you will see your affiliate marketing income soar.