Be available to your target market. How can you make a sale if no one can find you? Relying on links from other affiliate sites is not enough. You've got to be listed with at least a couple of major search engines. This will make you accessible to people who are actually already interested in your product, and will greatly increase your chances of a sale.

Keep your information current. Frequently update your site and your affiliate links. Nothing turns people off more than a stale site. Set a little time one day a week aside to maintain your content. Add quotes and pictures and delete old items. You may even want to consider having an item of week feature. This is attractive to potential customers, and it lets people know you're still involved.

Make sure your site is relevant. Remember, people aren't surfing there to click on your links. They're going there because of actual content of page. Keep up with your relevant industry and update your site regularly. See that your content is useful and that it relates to your target market. For example, if you're a member of a program that sells cookbooks, then wouldn't it make sense to have your website feature cooking tips and a weekly sample recipe?

Don't give up. Affiliate programs can be a great source of income if you just spend a little of your time and have a little patience. With just a little work you can really turn a slow affiliate site around, and watch those checks start rolling in.

When this happens you get additional visitors back to your site. And these visitors may in turn feature one of your other articles at their site or in their newsletter. Before you know it you are in 50 newsletters and on 100 web sites!

3. Visitors will stay at your web site longer because there are lots of articles to read. This gives you additional opportunities at getting more click throughs to your affiliate programs. You could feature links to your affiliate programs on each page you have articles.

More affiliate click throughs translate into more commissions.

4. You have given your visitors an instant feeling of trust. If you just featured other people's content then you are just a face in crowd.

However, when you feature your own content, you immediately 'stand out' and people are more inclined to trust you. If people trust you, then they are more inclined to buy from you.

For an affiliate, good content makes a site. Don't just use other people's content. Start featuring your own articles. If you keep adding your own new articles on a regular basis then people come back to your site again and again.