A few avoidable errors when promoting your affiliate program

In this article, I have listed a quick and easy bulleted
list of does and do not’s when trying to promote your
affiliate program.

* Many affiliate marketers make a huge mistake of posting
their ads on forums. Forums can be used to promote your
affiliate programs and your website but in a proper
manner.
Posting banners is very similar to spamming and may
easily
upset forum administrators.

* Always do your research before promoting your affiliate
program to a potential customer. Do not offer affiliate
programs to visitors who are not at all interested in
the products associated with the program. This is a
futile endeavor.

* If you promote affiliate programs offered by other
merchants, ensure that you develop your own advertising
copy. Many websites commit a common mistake of using the
same advertising copy as used by the merchant
themselves.

* Avoid Copyright infringement in all cases. Always use
original content or ask permission to use graphic images
or text found on other websites.

* Do not submit your programs to free websites. These may
be free but your programs would hardly ever be noticed,
especially by Search Engines. Moreover, your own ranking
would get lowered if you submit your affiliate programs
to such websites.

* Avoid using caps on your web page or email ad. Using
caps is symbolic to shouting, which never goes well with
potential customers. A few words may be written in
capital text to give them additional emphasis. However,
such practice should be limited.

* Always respond to all queries sent by visitors as soon
as possible. A slight delay in your response could
easily result in loss of a potential client.

* Do not use pop-up ads along with your webpage. Most
surfers are likely to close their browser if they come
across pop-ups.

* Do not host your website on a free server or use free
email accounts. This gives a negative impression to
visitors. Using free hosts and email accounts looks
cheesy and loses sales.

* Many websites do not have an opt-in list. Create an
opt-in and opt-out list for your visitors. Without
these,there is no way of tracking potential customers.
Visitors should be allowed to opt-in at any time
as well as opt-out at any time.

* Most sites have a poor tracking mechanism. It is
essential that you track all business activities.
Accurate record keeping is crucial. There are many
software tools, discussed earlier in this chapter,
than can automate your record keeping process with
minimal error.

* A 'mall' site is best used as a central hub to send
visitors to your other domains. As a main or only site,
unfocused mall sites don't get traffic from the engines,
and they don't convert well to sales. Highly focused
theme sites attract traffic and sales.

* Offline advertising may not be effective. A lot of money
and effort should not be wasted on offline advertising.
Most people rarely check websites that are advertised in
local magazines or newspapers.

* Avoid focus on animated banner ads. These simply use up
bandwidth, thus making web pages load slower.

* While advertising do not degrade other competitors. It
is recommended that you highlight your products’
uniqueness and superiority but never mortify other
products.

* Banners or text links that expire are guaranteed to
eventually send your visitor to a broken link or show a
broken graphic on your page. Time sensitive advertising
is best used only in email advertising campaigns.

* Never put affiliate links on your homepage. This is
similar to asking your visitors to leave immediately.
Give them a chance to browse, sign up for your
newsletter and decide that they'd like to come back
to your place before introducing them to your
affiliates.

* Technology changes with amazing speed. To keep up with
this rapidly evolving industry, you must invest time and
money in research. The investment is a tax write-off,
and will pay you back many times over in additional
revenue.

Hopefully this list has proven helpful to you and has shown
you some red flags to avoid when it comes time to promote
your own affiliate site. Good luck and take care.