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Affiliate marketing can be really profitable when done right. However, almost everyone EXCEPT the few super affiliates who understand what it takes and make herds of cash in commissions make these mistakes and that is why I have come to regard them as the top 7 mistakes that affiliate marketers make.

1. Thinking There Is Only One Niche To Sell In & To

As straight forward as it looks, most affiliate marketing campaigns fall victim to this mistake. They erroneously believe that to make money from affiliate products, you have to sell "make money" products. This is nothing but a misconception. Marketing as an affiliate is simply about selling products and services for a commission and you can just as well sell stuff outside the "make money" niche and trust me when I say you can do it far more easily. So, dump that idea that only certain niches sell and expand your view by looking into selling in other highly profitable niches.

2. Zero Landing Pages versus Poorly Done Landing Pages..

One of the biggest, yet most made mistakes is to launch an affiliate marketing campaign and then lead your prospects straight to the vendor's pitch (sales copy). This might have worked well back in 2002 but not now. Internet users have become more sophisticated and the honest truth is that most web users won't click on an affiliate link or anything that looks like it.

That is why more than anything else, you need a landing page. You landing page doesn't necessarily need to be something complex. I suggest you see http://easyaffiliatebucks.com to get a feel of what I mean by having something simple. The object is to pre-sell the product you are marketing and also to build a list of prospects so that you can followup and sell other related products to them.

If you are not already using this method or you are doing it wrong, never start another affiliate marketing campaign without it.

3. Neglecting A Followup & Contact System

Don't expect to reach the full potential of your affiliate marketing campaign without having a followup system fully in place. When you followup with prospects, you build trust, which helps you create even more commissions because the people who read from you believe in you and respect your views and opinions and that is why you need to build, feed and maintain your own list instead of helping other people build their own list at your own expense.

4. Thinking Short Term Profits Instead Of Long Term Earnings.

I agree, there are times when you just plain want some cash in the short term. However, as an affiliate marketer, the first thing on your mind should never be short term profits. PPC advertising is great and can help you produce some incredible short-term profits but never forget that when you do not make conscious effort to turn your efforts into a persistent income channel, it will all dry up the day you stop paying.

That is why more than anything else, you need to create other affiliate marketing avenues that will still give you results even 5years from today. These includes: article marketing, viral ebook marketing, having your own blog, forum marketing, building your own landing pages etc (This also goes for using links that you cannot control in your resource box. It is always better to login to your control panel, go to the redirect section and do a redirect to the affiliate products you are promoting. This way, you are still in control of what your links.)

5. Promoting Too Many Affiliate Products At A Time

The opportunity trap is a deadly mistake into which a lot of people are lured. Every new offer will look better than the previous and it is your duty to hold you head and focus on just a few programs at a time. Too many programs at a time will most likely sap your energy. If you are looking at selling many products at a time, the key is to choose product clusters in related niches and promote them. Too many dis-similar and far apart product niches will shatter your concentration.

6. Giving Up Too Soon

Giving up too soon is a big mistake most affiliate marketers make. It sometimes takes persistence and a chunk of effort to start making the kind of affiliate earning you want.

Expecting to hit $10,000 with just one article or after a 24hour effort is delusion. Yes.. I agree you can make a lot of money as an affiliate marketer but it won't happen overnight. You will need to learn the ropes, try out several techniques and work hard at it to make it happen.

7. Horror Pages!!

Actually it is called error pages (but I once heard someone use that term) and these are the pages that come up when the specific pages being requested on a website is unavailable. Just imagine having writing 10 articles that each got published on 250 website and having an average of 100page views per article in a few months. That gives a total of 250,000 potential clicks on your links which could result in valuable affiliate sales.

If those links go to an error page - then you understand what I mean by horror!

' Oluwafisayo Akinlolu, 2008