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Affiliate marketing is when a business rewards you for each visitor you bring to their company. A person can be an affiliate by bringing customers to a company though marketing efforts such as reward sites and referrals. This article will give you some tips on how to succeed at being an affiliate marketer.

Does the network have the merchants you'd like to work with? This is what matters most, as there really is no best network. They all have strong points. Consider trying a merchant from each of the major networks to find what works best, while evaluating the tools those networks provide.

To be a successful affiliate marketer you want to build a rapport with your potential customers. That means posting on blogs or message forums and interacting with people. Don't make every post about your products either. Talk about life, your interests and your likes and dislikes. Connecting with people on a human level will make them more apt to listen when you have a product to promote.

Don't put all your eggs into one basket. Register with multiple affiliate programs that cater to your particular niche. Be careful to not overload yourself, but aim for 2 to 3 different affiliates to start with. This will give your customers more to choose from and increase your odds of gaining commissions.

Choose programs that pay out much less for the next level of commissions if you are working with a two tier affiliate program. The smaller commission that your affiliate makes for recruiting means the more time they will spend on trying to make actual sales. The more sales they make, the better your income stream.

Do not get lazy once you have things going well. Take the time to look into new products and trends. Check for updates with your affiliate programs and find out if they have any new tools and ads that will increase the visual appeal to your site and make it more tempting to click on.

Be honest with yourself: if a program isn't working, move on. It's up to you to watch your statistics and see which items are selling, which items aren't, and which new items are available. If you find that a specific affiliate program isn't making enough to justify the time you're spending on it, cut it off.

Make sure that the affiliate program is giving you the tools that you need to be successful. A company that knows what it's doing will provide you with all sorts of things to help generate traffic including banners, templates, text links and more. They should also be making implementation recommendations. Remember, your success is also their success.

When selecting an affiliate marketing program, ask if cookies are used to track sales and link customers back to the original referrer. Cookie tracking helps to track individual visitors that follow a link from you to the affiliate site. If they return to the affiliate site again at a later time to make purchases, you can still receive a commission.

At the least, you should annually perform focus groups with customers and site visitors. Focus groups give you a chance to see your audience and their physical reactions to your products or services. You may find that focus group members also have terrific new ideas that you would have never thought of on your own!

You have now learned the definition of affiliate marketing, and some tips to get you started. Take everything you have learned in this article to build your skills as an affiliate marketer, and to play a significant role in helping companies build their customer database. You can now get started helping others and helping yourself at the same time.