An affiliate marketer is essentially a person who has agreed to provide advertising services for a product that is not of his own making. In return for providing the recommendations, by way of a web-site or other means the owner of the product pays a commission to the affiliate for developing a client who bought his product.

As you send paying clients to the product owner’s site you are paid a commission which is based on the amount of the sale. For physical products the average commission will usually vary from 4 to 10 percent of the sale. In the case of informational products the commission can be as high as 100 percent, though the average is usually between 50 and 75.

This may seem like an easy task, you apply for an affiliate position with a merchant, put up or have an advertising web-site, develop some traffic and send prospective clients to the merchants web-site. Many new affiliates tend to make a mistake when they start their affiliate career. The goal of course is to make a sale for the merchant with the prize of the commission as the reward. The challenge is to do so in a way that sends a convinced customer who is ready to make a purchase.

Sending a client to a merchant’s web-site requires a lot more work than simply saying “go there and buy.” There is an educational process that the affiliate must accomplish in order to help the client make an informed decision. Education is the key, knowing the product thoroughly, demonstrating why the client needs it and in some cases adding extra value will create satisfied customers. Unfortunately, too many new affiliates tend to skip this step and wind up wondering why they never make any sales.

Here are some guidelines to apply:

Step #1: Get a good education. This is critical to developing a successful affiliate business. Find out who the successful affiliate marketers are and learn the language of affiliate marketing. Learn the terms that are used and how to be informed by them so you will know if a product is worth the investment it will take to promote it. Do a thorough investigation of the merchant and the product you intend to promote. You must know how and why the product is useful so you can communicate that knowledge to your prospective customers.

Step #2: Design and build a site and a business plan or set of goals for your affiliate business. You would not get on an airplane with a pilot who did not have a flight plan; so do not launch an affiliate site without having a plan of action that you intend to implement.

Step #3: Now that the plan is down on paper, follow the necessary steps to get it into motion. Start moving, and remember that when you open for business you need to show up to run the store on a daily basis. At least in the beginning you need to babysit the business daily with more information, more great content. Treat your affiliate marketing business like a serious business and you will be rewarded down the road for your efforts.

Step #4: Along the way as you are designing your site you will be making many decisions that can affect the outcome of your success. You need to learn methods of testing and be willing to change your design and copy around to get maximum results. Sometimes very small changes in design make for huge changes in results. Test Test Test!

Using these guidelines will go a long way toward aiding your success as an affiliate marketer.