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If you have ever tried or are currently trying to succeed with affiliate marketing, I can almost guarantee that your system of trying to make money looks something like this:

1. You decide that you want to make money with affiliate marketing.

2. You sign up free at clickbank

3. You choose the most popular product that you think will make you the most money.

4. You advertise your affiliate link

5. You hope that people join so you can earn money

This is actually what I call the "Failure Formula." If you try to make money with affiliate marketing following that the same failure formula that most people do, you are guaranteed to fail.

While there are dozens of things wrong with the 5 step process above, I will focus on 2 of the main items left out. In fact, it is estimated that only 2% of all people involved in affiliate marketing use the following two steps on a regular basis. It is no surprise though that they are the most successful 2%.

First mistake: In the scenario above, the affiliate link was advertised directly. You never, ever, ever advertise your affiliate link directly. If you want to have any success in affiliate marketing, you MUST get your own url. You can get a URL for under $10 so there is no excuse for not having one.

Nobody, and I mean nobody is going to click on those ugly clickbank links. In fact, it is estimated that you will get as much as 900% more clicks on your link by using a personal url. Think of what an increase in clicks of 900% can do for your bottom line.

all you have to do is purchase your own URL for under $10 and then forward it to your affiliate link, right? WRONG!

Having the url is not enough. If you want to build a successful LONTERM affiliate marketing business, you also need a capture page.

Second Mistake: In the scenario above, all traffic was being directed directly to the sales page. So what happens with all of that targeted traffic that you worked so hard to get to your site? Well, one of two things happens. They buy and you make a one time commission on them. Or, most likely, they stay on your site for 30 seconds or less and leave.

In either case, you lose out. In the first case you may be thinking, but wait, I earned some money on that person. This is true. But, if you had "captured" that personas name and email address you could be profiting from that person for years and years on multiple products. It is a proven fact that most of the profits made in affiliate marketing on on the "back end" or in "upsells" after somebody buys so you are losing out on tons and tons of money.

In the second case, you just wasted all of your money and time that you spent on advertsing. If you had set up a capture page, you could have captured the name and email of the prospect before they went to the sales page. Then, you could continue to market to them and eventually create a sale. In affiliate marketing, and in marketing in general, it takes on average 7 exposures for people to buy. If you are only giving them one exposure, you are again throwing money out the window.

So, before you get started in affiliate marketing, it is absolutely necessary to have two things:

1. Your own personal URL (should be specific to the types of products you are promoting).

2. Your own capture page that collects the name an email of visitors BEFORE they go to the sales page. This not only builds a targeted list for you, but it allos you to create more sales, back end sales, up sales, and offer additional products in the future.

Remember, those experiencing the most success in affiliate marketing are doing the 2 things above. Don't reinvent the wheel. Affiliate marketing is much, much easier when you follow the successful systems that have already been proven for you.