Knowing how to succeed as an affiliate is very important to your online success. Most of us start out as affiliates, selling someone else's product for a commission.

In many ways affiliate marketing is the perfect online business, you don't have to create products, deal with customer service or answer pre-sales questions. As an affiliate you just promote and get paid.

Sounds good, right?

It is! This can be a wonderful way to earn money online!

But the fact remains that some 98% (or more) of affiliates never make a dime online and very few of the 2% who do succeed make a full time living.

This problem can be solved!

You can begin again today and find success as an affiliate marketer if you work at it and use conservative and proven methods.

Over the years of my own affiliate marketing efforts I have discovered nine keys to affiliate marketing success.

I use each one of these principles and share them freely with you in hopes they help you too.

In this short series I will share nine 'tricks of the trade', as well as a word or two about how you can put them into practice in your business life.

We will do that in three parts and so today we look at methods 1 - 3.

Remember, every super affiliate was where you are right now at one point.

Affiliate Tip #1 - Use Great Ad Copy

Most people are not great copywriters. That's completely understandable. While copywriting is something you might want to learn, it makes sense to model great copywriters until you get there.

Remember: You must never take someone's copy, be it an email or sales letter or other ad, and copy it word for word or steal their graphics. That's just wrong. Never infringe a copyright.

But you can model what they have done and make it your own. And believe me, it works!

Where do you find great ads to use as your model?

Watch the ezines you read. Look for repeat ads. If the ad runs over and over again it's a winner.Affiliate programs almost always offer pre-written ads you can use.Classic eBooks often contain great copy ideas.Social media - especially Twitter - is great for headline research.If you are on top marketers' lists you are getting lots of emails. Study them for good copy.

In each of these cases you will want to change what you find to fit you. My best advice today is to keep your ads short and create curiosity.

Affiliate Tip #2 - Promote Only GREAT Products

The key is to promote great products, things that help people and have stood the test of time.

It must meet these three standards:

The product works well and meets a real need.It pays you enough to cover marketing costs and provide a profitIt creates happy buyers.

Many affiliates miss the vital point of a product working well. When you believe in something you will promote it well and with all your heart, you will find ways to succeed promoting it.

When all you want is money you will be tempted to give up after the first unsuccessful attempt and jump to another product.

And that is a sure recipe for failure.

The reason I say it must pay enough is that paid advertising is the #1 way to promote affiliate products. So you have to earn enough to both pay your ad costs and keep some profits too.

Not hard to do if you know what to look for.

The reason happy buyers matters is that you are going to be able to follow up with these buyers and offer them more. If they are happy they will buy from your recommendation time and time again.

Affiliate Tip # 3 - Use An Ad Tracker

This is one of those areas in which almost all affiliate marketers could improve.

While there is no reason to go crazy tracking every little thing (you really can waste a lot of time here) you simply MUST track every ad to know if you have made or lost money.

Two of my favorite ad trackers are Hypertracker and LinkTrackr.

For perhaps the best information on the subject of ad tracking, visit my good friend Harvey Segal at www.ad-tracking.com.

One final word here if I may.

I strongly suggest avoiding all free link cloakers.

The spammers will ruin them all over time and your links will be at risk. And that's a risk you can't afford.

Well there you have my first three tips.

Here are three action steps you might want to take:

Choose the one product you want to promote mostGet a great ad written for that product, or write one if you preferGet your ad tracking squared away.

If you do these three things you will be prepared for the success that you want and deserve. In the next message I will share three more keys (as well as one advanced technique) to help you even more.

Until then, be well and don't ever give up. You are closer than you think.

Charlie Page owns the Directory of Ezines and is the author of 10 books about Internet marketing. Through his membership sites and personal consulting, Charlie helps people achieve their goal of independence in record time. Can Charlie help you? Find out at http://www.charliepage.com/

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