There are many ways to generate sales, but there are also ways to ensure your affiliate marketing will fail. However, many marketers make these mistakes without realizing they are actually running away sales!

To help you with your affiliate marketing programs, we have collected some of the most common mistakes made by web based internet affiliate program marketers so that you can avoid making these. Many people have learned these same tips the hard way - through struggling to generate sales that simply never closed. The whole idea is to close the sale!

1. Failure to realize people scan information.

The absolute Number One mistake made by affiliate marketers is failing to realize that the prospect that lands on your website will only read about 30% of the material on the page. Most people, especially those busy, highly intelligent, professionals who have the money to buy your products, are too busy to read every word.

They will look for highlights, bullet points, pictures, and blurbs and focus in on those points to determine whether the information is worthy of additional time to read more. Don't fall into this trap. Create your affiliate marketing landing page so that the main points stand out and can't be missed by the reader who scans the page.

2. Failure to offer bundled packages.

Everyone wants something for free; it's just human nature. Free reports added to the product you are selling, free software that enhances the specific product, or even a free subscription to a newsletter will give the prospect the idea that they are getting more for their money than the single core product you are marketing. Don't let them get away by simply offering your product. Bundle a package no one can refuse!

3. Failure to follow-up.

Of the people who will land on any specific affiliate marketing sales page, 1 in 100 will buy immediately. The other 99 will move on to another page and never return. In order to attract a larger percentage of those 99 who move on, have a sign-up for free reports using an autoresponder.

Let's say 25% of the 99 sign up for the free reports, that means that 24 people are going to see your product in their inbox by way of your free report. If only 10% convert to sales, you have changed from having 1 sale in 100 hits to 3.4 sales per 100 visitors. And that is a very conservative estimate.

4. Failure to remember the rule of sevens.

It has long been known from scientific research that the average person will have to be contacted about a specific product seven times before they will buy. This goes for buying houses or buying affiliate marketing products online. Be sure that

your autoresponder messages do not stop short of the seven. In fact, go farther, send as many as 12 messages, making the time periods between the messages slightly longer as time passes.

5. Don't flood the prospect's inbox.

No one wants to open their inbox to find that there are 5 or 6 messages from the same marketer. That's a sure-fire way to get on their email blocking list! Instead make contact every few days, dropping down to once a week, and even to once every two weeks between contacts. Persistence generates sales; don't give up when you are one contact shy of the sale closure.

6. Failure to promote your website outside the Internet.

Why would you want to stop with only those people who find you through the Internet if you are selling a good product? 

Make contacts through your business card, letterhead, signature on email, friends and neighbors. Sure, some of these people will visit your site and not make a purchase. But remember, 1 in 100 will buy immediately!

7. Failure to build your second tier sales

If you are an affiliate marketer, you won't be making profits just from your own sales. Anyone joining the program as a result of your referral will become a member of your downline and a small portion of the money made by their sales will trickle upwards to you. Everyone needs as large a downline as possible. Remember, those who join underneath your downline will also cause trickle-up profits for you.

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