One of the easiest mistakes as a newcomer to affiliate marketing, is not choosing the right product. I’ve tried a number of products and have had mixed success. I have identified a couple of strategies that make choosing the right product easier and usually more successful.

The first strategy, is to choose a product that solves a problem. Products or services that you promote need to solve a problem otherwise the searcher is not likely to purchase. People search for answers to their problems so if you can provide a product that is their answer, they will buy it! Here are some points to think about when choosing a product to promote.

• Who would want this?
• Why would they buy this over similar products?
• How does this product solve their problem?
• Are people searching for this answer to their problem?

The second strategy, is to choose an affiliate product you have an interest or are knowledgeable about. If you choose products you know about, then you are more likely to be successful. The more you understand about why someone may want this product the better you will understand how to market it to them. My biggest successes have been with products I have a good knowledge about and would probably have similar ideas, needs and wants as other potential buyers looking for this product.

A friend of mine makes a significant amount of money promoting a product I know little about. I know the basics but not enough about the industry to understand what a buyer would want, what they are searching for, and what their buying signal would be. If you have a above average knowledge compared to other people about a product, then that is probably a good product to promote. To find ideas for products to promote, think about what you do online, in your spare time, with friends, and what you talk about. Another option is to choose products in an area that you have an interest in learning about.

When you are new to affiliate marketing, it’s easy to get caught up in the idea of making money. This approach will usually lead to failure! Get a basic strategy for choosing products and stick to it. Understand the product, who would want it, and how to best promote it. Set a goal before you start on what you expect to earn and stick with promoting it until you achieve it. Focus on the product and the buyer and the money will come. Then you can start all over again with a new product.

Squidoo the brainchild of bestselling author Seth Godin has launched another cool FREE and what is no doubt going to be another internet marketers paradise.

The Ever project www.ever.com, allows you to do is have a great domain like the following.

Tastiest.pizza.ever.com… do you have the recipe?
Best.photographer.ever.com… is that you?
Smartest.designer.ever.com… tell me that wouldn’t make a great resume URL for a designer for hire.
Cutest.dog.ever.com… yours?
Coolest.boss.ever.com… well, if you’re the suck-up sort. www.squidoo.com

I only caught onto this yesterday and you have to be super quick to get a high traffic keyword url because most of them were already taken but I did manage to snag a few for myself to use as topical authority pages on a particular topic to target markets with good volumes of traffic and by targeting 2, 3, 4 & 5 word long tail keywords and phrases which have lower levels of competitions in the search engines.

If you haven’t grabbed your free ever.com page check it out since it’s free, easy and can bring profitable results if you add some effort to building some great content.

Recently I met a guy who happened to be an internet marketer promoting affiliate products from and a range of affiliate opportunities. He had not been doing affiliate marketing for very long and had successfully managed to build a number of sites that put his income at over $6000 per month. Now $6000 per month doesn’t make you rich but it sure does change the playing field and opens up the door to freeing up your time from regular day job to work on your internet marketing full time.

You might be thinking so what, and how does that help me? Well what surprised me the most was this guy’s technical skills. The guy was not a designer or a developer, he didn’t have any skills other than the very basics for building a website, and has the average computer skills of anyone you might meet. He did however have a good understanding on how to drive traffic using search engines using targeted keywords. I thought how could this guy possibly be more successful than me with no technical skills?

Now I think of myself as pretty tech savvy. I know how to write some code, I run my own server, have all the latest software to build websites and programs not to mention the huge bookshelf of technical books however this guy with his average computer skills had made enough money in affiliate marketing to not need a day job. What I realized is that I look at things more from a technical position rather than a marketers position. LESSON ONE: Learn to think like a marketer and leverage your skills to YOUR advantage.

So I asked him what it was that made his affiliate marketing projects so successful. His answer was simple…“WORDS”, it’s all in the words you use and the story you tell about the products you are promoting. He showed me some examples from his websites and it was easy to see that his writing was compelling and the words he used built emotion, made you feel something, projected an image of success for the future. It was the meticulous selection of words that compelled you to take out your credit card and make the purchase so all your problems would be solved.

Take the time and be meticulous with your writing of compelling content using words that build emotion and engage your audience. Build your knowledge of the power of words and you will build a valuable skill on your journey to riches as a super affiliate.

Zac Johnson the Super Affiliate, has published a great post on his blog on how to make money with affiliate marketing.  Zac shows you the complete process, step by step of signing up with an affiliate program, choosing an offer, setting up your ppc campaign and tracking the conversions with a tracking pixel.

Now if you learning about affiliate marketing then Zac’s guide makes it pretty easy and you’ll be up and running in no time. However if you’re a real newbie and are still learning the basics of web then you’ll need to understand how to do it.

Some basic things you’ll need to understand are the basics of PPC marketing on a PPC network like Google Adwords.  The better you understand PPC, the easier it is going to be for you to understand what is working and what isn’t and how profitable your marketing is.  You’ll also need to know how to register a domain and how to either build the landing page or setup the domain referral directly to your affiliate offer.

Now it’s not too often you come across a guide as detailed as Zac Johnsons Super Affilate Guide so get on over there and check it out and give it a go.