The key to becoming a successful affiliate marketer

We know what affiliate marketing is: promoting other people's products and taking a commission for each sale you drive. Some vendors offer a higher percentage of the cut they offer you than others do, but that is not the key point to look out for.

The key to successful affiliate marketing is to have products that many people really want.

If one vendor offers you 90% of his $49 product and another only offers you 25% commission on a $49 product should you just sign up for the 90%? No! For the simple reason you need to research anything you intend to promote.  At the end of the day if you are trying to drive people to buy utter rubbish just so you can make a profit then more fool you. It is your name the buyer will remember and they certainly won't ever listen to any of your recommendations again, they'll tell all their friends to avoid you like the plague as well!

So I'll say again "The key to successful affiliate marketing is to have products that many people really want".

When people talk about a niche product, you could be forgiven for thinking it must be some small area with maybe only 200 people looking for it - it is much larger than that! There can still be thousands of people looking for a niche product, but as a % of the number of people on the web, they are just a small 'niche' group.

Some items people will buy again and again, bread, milk, toilet roll ...you get the gist. Unfortunately none of these items can make you a commission as an affiliate, so you need to consider other areas where people will constantly look for more. A classic summary would be 'information products'. People always want information. If you checked out Clickbank you'll have noticed the products are generally PDF's for people to download. But people will pay for these products because they want the information.

So if you can't make a profit out of toilet roll, consider informational products as the next best recurring thing!

One of the best products that I would recommend as your introduction to affiliate marketing would be Clickbank for Newbies.

• Written by someone that knows what they are talking about
• A product many people can benefit from
• The latest version is always available online as part of your affiliate link

That last point is a really good one. Many people will write a document (then make it a PDF). Some will never update it and still be trying to sell exactly the same information when it is 5, 6, 7 years old. Others will update the information but only really make it available to newer affiliates. By getting a link that points to the online version, you are always sending people to the latest version - no outdated information there then.

The best news though is that it's FREE. :)