*Take a look to see if affiliate program is two-tier so that you can earn money from recruiting other affiliates to that affiliate program. Most of the noteworthy and professional affiliate programs will be two-tier although there are some notable ones that aren't, Clickbank being most widespread. At very minimum, affiliate program should offer some sort of incentive to recruit new affiliates. If an affiliate program is not two-tier, make sure that you determine whether or not product(s) being sold are professional and have good conversion rates.

*Ensure that affiliate program makes it easy to sign up, complete with welcome email and full contact information of point person who can answer any questions. If affiliate program isn't run by a third party like Clickbank, affiliate program sign up form should also ask for your EIN # or your Tax ID # for proper reporting. For business owner who has established a business identity, this is key for accurate bookkeeping. Some marketers have gotten away from welcome emails to their new affiliate partners because potential affiliate partners sometimes do not want to give their name and email, they'd just like to join and make money with no 'marketing' messages hitting their Inbox.

*A strong affiliate program ideally should have plenty of help tools including any or all of following: real-time tracking, solo email templates (even though I suggest writing your own), graphics, banners, etc. For newbie, better help tools, easier it will be for them to feel comfortable selling product. In addition, affiliate program should offer follow up emails to all affiliates offering help to sell more products as well as relaying success stories of how other affiliates have made strong sales numbers.

*Ideally, affiliate program's affiliate links should be unique to affiliate but should also be structured so that link is distinctly protected from would be commission thieves. The affiliate link ID should not be visible in URL after would be customer gets to sales page of product in question.

For newbie, abovementioned steps will help mitigate wasting time and will maximize their time and efforts. The best affiliate program for newbie is one that satisfies most or all of these criteria and sells a product that meshes well with newbie's USP.

Karl Augustine "Starting Smart!"

Author, "9 Deadly Mistakes To Avoid When Starting An Online Business" Publisher, "Starting Smart!" e-zine

Starting an online business

www.9mistakes-online.com

4) Build a sub list of targeted prospects.

Would you believe that I, personally, have built campaign designated email lists of less than 100 members, that have actually accounted for more sales than my main list ... that goes out to thousands of subscribers? Why? Laser targeting, my friend. Offer a campaign related update, course, report, or other form of freebie to attract them. In addition, you'll now have a ready made list for future promotions made by affiliate merchant.

5) Search engine optimize your promotional pages.

... for keywords and phrases relevant to your offerings, and run pay per click campaigns targeting same and comparable terms. The search engines shouldn't, by any means, be your sole source of promotion (email, forum, offline marketing ... to name just a few methods) but they could potentially play an important part. I recommend investing in a course like Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkin's 'Stomping The Search Engines' , which covers both SEO and PPC pretty extensively ... and effectively.

Work these 5 tips into your affiliate program promotions, and I'm sure you'll enjoy success.

Sidenote:

If you're participating in a multiple tier affiliate program, and you have access to your downline referrals, make sure you take time to train them to succeed. Remember ... their success is YOUR success!