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Everyday I see more and more affiliates making the same mistakes. The worst part is that they're just doing what they're taught by the so-called 'experts.'

It's no shock to me that 95% of affiliates make no money. The problem isn't that some people are just 'better' than others ' the problem is just the way the 95% are running their business. That's why I'm going to diagnose the 6 most common mistakes AffiliateClassroom.com sees affiliates making everyday.

The 6 Mistakes you better learn to avoid like the plague:

1. Not Building For Search Engines:

If you're an affiliate and want to be successful at it, you better learn to make search engines your best friend. Search engines are a better source for long-term, targeted and FREE traffic. Make sure to build your site in clean HTML coding, provide good content and optimize all your pages (not just the home page).

I firmly believe that all affiliates need to study search engine optimization closely. If you want to learn how to optimize websites quickly without spending years studying, check out my 'push-button' system at http://www.DominateSearchEngines.com

2. Not Enough Text ' Too Many Banners:

This might be the #1 problem ' I come across hundreds of these sites almost daily. Think back to why 'YOU'RE' online ' to find information right? What good are banners to you? Do banners provide you any good information? Absolutely not.

Don't get me wrong, I don't discourage using banners ' I just say to only use them after you have content on your website. And stick to just 1 or 2 banners. The goal here is to hook someone with good content, then urge them to click the banner to learn more. Don't just slop up a bunch of banners and expect to become a super affiliate'

3. Promoting Only One Product:

This was something I learned from Ken Envoy and it made no sense to me until I tried it. Let's use an example to illustrate: Let's say you're looking for a car and you ask someone 'Hey, which one should I buy?' Would you rather have the person show you 3, give you the positives and negatives and then 'suggest' a car or just shove one of them down your throat and refuse to talk about anything else?

I think the answer is clear ' you much rather have someone RECOMMEND something. So, do the same on your websites ' let your consumer choose what link they click on (your conversions will go through the roof).

4. Not Giving Away FREE Products:

Another mistake I see done on almost 98% of the websites I visit ' they have absolutely no viral marketing build into their system. If you want to hook someone and build loyalty, put some of your best information into a small PDF ' give it away for free and watch your sales and traffic multiply. NOTE: This is a more long-term strategy so be patient'

5. Hard-Selling:

If you know anything about affiliate marketing, then you've heard of 'PRE-SELL' ' well it's a shocker that most people never use it. PRE-SELL is when you warm up to your visitor with some good content and information and then slowly 'recommend' them to buy something.

I also never thought this would work until I tried it. Hard-selling is what your merchant should be doing, you, however, should avoid it at all costs.

6. Too Much Going On'

This mistake is a bit related to the 'Too many banners' mistake. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I have WANTED to buy something but just couldn't find the right link to do it.

Some affiliate websites have a million things going on ' the reader gets so confused that they hit the back button and 'poof,' never come back. Keep your pages targeted and clean ' go for ONE goal ' to get the click over to the merchant(s) you're promoting.

Golden Rule: The more you show them, the more confused they get.

I highly suggest reading those 6 again ' they are very important to master if you want to become a super affiliate one day. Even I am going back to my old projects and still fixing my mistakes ' they're all over the place. But, the second I fix them, I see an enormous difference, you will too.

Copyright 2005 Anik Singal