Successful Affiliate Marketing

There are hundreds of thousands of affiliate programs
out there, all of which claim to be the best.  Many
of them try to give you the impression that all you
have to do is use their banners and links then wait
for the money to start rolling in.  Although this
can be the case, this type of scenario normally 
applies to large sites with a lot of web traffic.

Choosing banners
With most affiliate programs, you are offered a 
variety of banners to plan on your website, as very
few of them will be effective.  The problems with
most banners are their size.  If you choose a banner
that is high in size, it will take a long time to
implement and use.  Therefore, it's recommended that
you use banners no more than 15kb in size.

When you select any types of graphical advertising,
you should try and keep the theme of your website in
mind.  Even though graphical ads are meant to stand
out and catch people's eye, they shouldn't be to 
the point where everything else on the page is 
completely ignored.  

Pop ups and unders
A lot of companies will now give their affiliates
the chance of using pop up or pop under ads.  In
most opinions, pop ups aren't the way to go.  They
can easily annoy visitors and are normally closed
before they even have the chance to load.  You 
should instead go for pop unders and those types
that only display once per visit.

Text link ads
Once of the most successful means of advertisting 
is text link ads.  They are easy on bandwidth, don't
use a lot of space, and they easily be implemented
into most types of page layouts.  Good text links
offer some information as to why your visitor 
should investigate your offers.  

Email advertising
The direct promotion via email has really taken off
over the last several years, although it has 
brought tons of spam with it. If you plan to use
email as a method of advertising your products,
you should stand behind what you sell and make
yourself available to answer any questions.

Patience
If you feel confident that your site can generate
great sales for certain company's, you should 
contact them to negotiate an arrangement.  If they
don't seem to enthused to begin with, you should
remain patient as companies are approaced every
day with affiliates looking to make better deals.

The reality remains that most affiliates can't 
deliver what they promise, and companies are 
aware of this.  

You should always keep in mind that most forms of
advertising will take time.  No matter what methods
you plan to use, give it some time before you make
any type of decision. Although something may not
happen overnight - it very well could in a few
days or weeks.

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