Freedom is something we here in United States cherish. We, as a nation, have never been defeated, within our borders, by any other nation. Our ancestors fought for freedom. We have demonstrated, as a nation, fulfillment of American Dream: idea that prosperity, wealth and financial independence are available to anyone willing to put forth effort through honesty, hard work and strong determination.

Therefore, concept and expectation of freedom seems to be engrained within us as Americans. This being case, we naturally tend to rebel against any form of tyranny or oppression. 9/11 demonstrated this, as at least some form of patriotism became strongly evident. We value freedom to make our own decisions and live our own lives, without fear of reprisal or repercussion.

Affiliates - Avoid These Two Big Mistakes

You hear success stories and you see potential for earning an income on internet. Mistake number one to avoid is jumping in and joining a bunch of affiliate programs, then picking up services and software that you're told you need for marketing, here and there, willy- nilly, spending way too much money, and then making your- self crazy keeping it all straight and trying to make it all work together. Do yourself a favor and do some research. Then make a plan. Fail to plan = plan to fail!

If you are already an affiliate for any program, you've probably heard that to really succeed you need a website. Mistake number two is to ignore this advice. You DO need a website. Yes, many affiliate programs give you one or more websites to use to promote their program or product. However, these aren't true sites, they are glorified sales letters. There's nothing wrong with these and you will use them, but they are not kind of site you need to have to really succeed with affiliate programs. You need a site that is your unique web BUSINESS. If you're not building a business, you're not going to go very far.

Avoid these mistakes by planning your affiliate business and having a website. These two things go hand in hand. Your website is presentation of you business, as well as how you DO business in Net.

Now, a few questions:

First, what kind of affiliate business will you build?

This is why it is a mistake to just go out and join all kinds of affiliate programs - type of business you choose will determine which affiliate programs you join. And please forget about just putting up a list of affiliate links. Be honest with yourself. Does that type of site encourage YOU to buy? Always keep in mind that most people are on Net looking for information, NOT opportunity to buy something. Offer good information and you will find a grateful audience. You'll also find plenty of affiliate programs to fit with almost any kind of information!

A word of caution - if you want your business to be about internet marketing - trying to sell all those programs and services I mentioned - please consider competition. A lot of people are doing this and few do it very well. Consider trying to work a niche market. Ken Evoy explains this really well in his free Affiliate Masters course (See Author's box at end of article).