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The potential to earn profits without really doing much of anything has enticed a lot of people towards affiliate marketing. Is it that simple?

As an affiliate, all that is required of you is to simply place the merchant's ad on your website. Then after that, you virtually do nothing but wait for anyone to click on the merchant's ad and later collect your profits. Easy, right? Well, not quite often.

Successful affiliates in any affiliate program simply don't sit there and wait for money to come. Why? Because there is no money in simply sitting and waiting. If you want to be successful in affiliate marketing and if you want to continually grow your affiliate checks, you've got to do something. So, what are the steps which one should take to make their affiliate program work better and gain more commissions for you?

1. Become an expert on your affiliate product. You can promote your merchant's product better if you know a lot of things about it. You can also write a testimonial or a personal endorsement ad about it.

2. Host your own website. Or at least have a domain name that is short and easy to remember. You certainly wouldn't expect a visitor to remember a very long and incomprehensible URL. And if that's so, you also wouldn't expect him to visit your website any time soon.

3. Write your own affiliate ads. Many merchants usually wouldn't mind if you write and design your own ads for their products. This gives you a greater advantage over a lot of other affiliates who must be advertising the same affiliate products.

4. Participate in chat rooms, discussion boards, and forums related to your product. If you use to ignore them before, then it is time for you to start focusing your attention on them. You can start your own chat or join an existing chat related to your product.

5. Create a free ezine or newsletter. Ezines and newsletters are periodical publications whose aim is to inform a group of people about a certain subject. In your ezines and newsletters, you don't always have to promote your merchant's product for this may greatly annoy your subscribers. Rather, find a way to insert your affiliate ads and links on some portions of the letter. What's important is that you be able to find a way to attract more traffic to your site, induce your visitors to click on the ads on your site, and be able to promote your merchant's.

If you can do these, there's no reason for you to fail in affiliate marketing.

Copyright 2006 Nikki Mhlanga