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If you're new to affiliate marketing, or if you've been doing it awhile but you aren't making any money, you might be making one of these big mistakes in your business. What follows are three of the biggest mistakes I see affiliates making as I cruise the net, and some solutions for creating a better website that converts more visitors into paying customers.

The first big mistake many affiliates make is building an amateurish or downright ugly website. There are design principles that you must follow when you build your website to achieve success in affiliate marketing. There are also plenty of tools to help you create a professional looking site.

When a visitor arrives at your site, you have only a few seconds to create interest in your site and to build credibility and rapport. First impressions are vitally important! Your banner must be of professional quality and must be simple and to the point. The name of your website and what you say in your banner must tell the visitor exactly what your website is about upon first glance.

Too many graphics is a bad thing. Your site should be simple text for the most part. Keep your site simple, easy to read, clean and uncluttered. That means having margins, easy to read fonts, and easy on the eye colors. White backgrounds with black type are best. Eliminate all the gaudy colors, wild graphics, and blinking lights. Use only one or two colored fonts.

Your goal is create credibility, reliability, and trustworthiness with your visitor. Think conservatively. Other ways to create credibility and rapport is to put a photo of yourself near the top of your page. Be sure to display your email address and contact details prominently.

Just below your banner should be your headline in large type. This headline is the most important part of your webpage. It must be interesting and bold and draw the visitor into your site. You must compel the reader to continue reading! Your headline should address the needs of your visitor or provide a solution to your visitor's problem.

Finally, do not overwhelm your customer with choices. Design your navigation so that the visitor has no more than five links to choose from. You do not want to confuse your potential customer. A confused mind simply won't make a purchase. More often than not, the confused visitor will exit your website in search of an easier and clearer solution to their need or problem.

Your navigation should be placed in the same place on every webpage to make it easier for your visitor. Keep your visitor happy! The happy mood is the buying mood. What's more, a customer that is happy to have found you and the products you have provided will more likely return again to your website.

The next big mistake I see being made by so many affiliates is their failure to capture their visitor's name and email address. This is vital to the success of your online business. It's amazing how many websites just try to sell products. I guess a lot of people who are new to affiliate marketing have not yet learned that most people have to see a product as many as seven times before they actually buy it.

Getting visitors to your site takes time and money, and maybe one in a hundred will buy your product. What about the other 99 visitors? Don't let them get away from you! Get their name and email address. Then continue to market to them. After they get to know and trust you, they will buy from you again and again.

Your customer list is the most important asset in your business. You will make more money on the back end than you will on the front end of your affiliate marketing business. Be sure to use an opt-in form and capture your visitor's name and email address! One good practice is to put an opt-in form on every page of your website; another is to offer some kind of freebie product that's related to your offer to bribe the visitor to opt-in.

The third big mistake I see affiliate marketers guilty of, not just newbies, is selling to their customers. Your job as an affiliate is not to sell, it's to PRE-sell. It's the merchant's job to write killer copy to convert the visitors you send them into paying customers.

I see lots of affiliates who swipe copy from merchant sales pages with the result that their webpage resembles a sales letter. This is the wrong approach to affiliate marketing salesmanship. It turns people off. People don't want to be sold to, and people don't like reading advertising.

Pre-selling is all about sharing your personal experience with a product. This is why you had better actually buy the product before you try to recommend it. You should relate your own feelings about the product and what it has done for you. Explain why you like it. Do not try to sell the product!

Instead of hyping a product the way sales letter pages do, you should describe to your visitor the product's benefits. Make a bulleted and detailed list of how you have used the product successfully. What it has actually done for you. Personalize your recommendation. Then casually offer the link to the product.