---- You are free to publish this article online in your ezine website, ebook, or other online publication. The full resource box, including 'By line' must remain intact and be published with article.

If you publish this article, please contact me and let me know where you are using it. Contact at: artpub@newbie-guides.com

--- **Article info** Word count: 1416 Hard-wrapped at 65 characters ---

Title: 10 Great ways to fail as affiliate 'seller' Copyright Eric Koshinsky, 2003

Only by knowing how to fail are you able to succeed.

10) mlm Pyramid schemes:

If you don't know it already, multi-level marketing and other pyramid schemes really only work for very few who get in early. There is also a general mistrust of mlm in public which makes them harder to work with. Don't confuse mlm with a two tiered (leveled) affiliate program that pays you a bonus on referral comissions as well. Unlike MLM, your earnings are NOT dependant on recruiting in decent affiliate programs.

9) Awful programs with terrible payouts

Be very careful in choosing what you promote. Go over promo material first, and get yourself a freebie copy (or some sample chapters etc.) to preview before you join program. Watch out for programs that pay a 2% comission on a $4.00 product and only send a check once you have reached $200 in total earnings!

Ok that was a bit exagerated, but you get point. Look for a good balance of comission rate, product cost, and payout level before you go gangbusters promoting a dud that will never produce any income. Also, do a little research on company before hand. Contact people giving 'testimonials', visit alexa.com to see where they are positioned, and keep an eye out for others promoting same programme.

8) Trying to beat system

This is normally a result of a "I'm gonna get rich quick" mentality. Trying to beat system will always result in failure. It may not be immediate, and you may even make a little money at it for a while, but you will get caught. Many affiliate programs are now starting to make use of black-list data. This is information about individuals that have tried to scam affiliate programs, used inappropriate marketing techniques such as spam, or in some way broken an affiliate Agreement. Once you are placed into such a list, you will quickly find it hard to join quality affiliate programs. The simple way to avoid this is: find quality programs that you are genuinely interested in, buy, subscribe or use them, and then promote them with integrity.

7) You have no stake/interest in product you are representing.

There can be any number of reasons for this. You don't like it, you don't know anything about it, it is your brother's product, you only took it on becuase it pays $25 per lead. Any one of these reasons will seriously cut down your profits. Basically, if you're not into it, skip it. The less interest you have in what you are doing, more difficult it is to succeed. More on this a little later.

6) Unrelated to your website

This is one of biggest and most common mistakes. Usually it is caused by a strange illness called Big-Payout-itis. You can normally tell a victim of this disease because they are normally found in a daze with $$ in their eyes. Keep products you represent simple, relevant, and related to content and purpose of your site. Big payouts are not direct ticket to big profits. If you give your visitors a meaningful and compelling reason to click link, you will get profits. Never forget that 20 sales at $5.00 each and 5 sales at $20 each are same as 1 sale at $100. Think of yourself, how much are you willing to comfortably spend? How does that compare with your visitors?

5) No context (like a banner ad - sitting there looking bad)

Part 2 will cover formula and format you can use to write your own article as well as provide valuable resources where to publish your articles for maximum exposure.

How to write your own ezine article

1. Research a topic you are very familiar with or have a passion about. This makes it easier to write and will show through in your writing.

2. Take out a sheet of notebook paper and create an outline of your article. Write down all points you wish to include. Don't worry yet about order because you just want to let your mind flow in beginning.

3. Write down a number of headings and sub headings that concisely describe your topic. You will probably edit these a number of times before you have finished your article.

4. Write a catchy introductory paragraph that will immediately get readers attention. If you are writing a "how-to" article, you could first explain problems people are having "how to do this task". You then provide solution to their problems.

5. Offer clear solutions in succeeding paragraphs. These should expand and support heading, introduction and sub headings.

Write four or five sentences for each paragraph. Your sentences should be formatted to 60-65 characters per line. This ensures your article can be read by all types of email software.

Most ezine publishers prefer short articles under 500 words, others prefer longer copy under 1000 words.

6. Write your conclusion - this paragraph should give a brief summary of what you have just written, emphasizing main benefits.

7. Include a 5-7 line resource box at end of article - give a brief description of who you are, what product or service you are selling, your web site and email address. See resource box at end of this article for an example.