Affiliate marketing can be a great way to earn extra income. However, you need to know what you're doing. Here are some tips on how to be achieve profits through affiliate marketing.

1. Be Selective

When I first became an affiliate marketer, I thought that joining as many programs as possible would help me find success. If you want to make money on the Internet, it's important to have several income streams. However, if you take on too much, you're not going to be able to do a good job. Be selective with the affiliate programs that you choose. Make sure that you are not too overwhelmed so that you can do a good job.

2. Help First

Too many affiliate marketers are so focused on selling that they forget about helping. It's important to remember that selling is not really part of the job description; the affiliate link you use takes your reader to a sales page. It's up to the sales page to get the individual to buy.

When I began this journey, I wanted to write the words "buy now!" everywhere. I wasn't focused on sharing information. I wasn't letting the reader know how the product could help them. I simply wanted them to follow a link so that I could potentially earn money.

Customer reviews are important to the buying process. Before someone makes a purchase, they want to see what other people think about the product. Amazon reviews are very popular for this reason. The people that write them typically are not affiliated with the product in any way, and as such, are giving their unbiased opinion.

If you act like a salesperson, you're going to turn some people off. However, if you act like a reviewer, you are likely to sell more and people will seek you out again in the future.

3. Use Tracking Affiliate Links

There are so many mistakes that I made as a beginner, but this was one of the biggest. When I was first getting started, I setup a free website with Amazon products that I liked placed on the pages, but I didn't always place a unique tracking affiliate link.

Why was that a problem? When someone buys and you get a commission, you want to know what journey they took to get to the product page. If you know that, then you know which of your pages are doing what they are supposed to do. You can better focus your efforts as a result.

It's not hard to set up a unique tracking ID through the Amazon program. Click on "account settings" in your dashboard. Go to "manage tracking IDs." This will let you create a tracking ID so you can figure out which pages are helping you to earn money.

No matter what, It's great to get a commission. However, if you understand what helped you be successful, you'll grow as a marketer. You can then tweak your campaigns so that they are as effective as possible. If you have some areas you are not as strong in, then you can outsource this to an internet marketing company. They can fill in the gaps, allowing you to do the rest.

4. Test Everything

If you put up an offer on your site, it's important to follow the links to make sure that everything works the way you want. For example, if you tell your readers to sign up for a great offer, and then they get a ton of junk mail as a result, they are unlikely to trust you again. Always think like a customer and only make recommendations that you think are in their best interest.

5. Be Truthful

If you head over to a forum focused on helping people figure out the online marketing process, you'll inevitably see a post from someone saying that they are struggling. However, their signature line tells a different story and instead claims that they made a lot of money through a particular program (and includes an affiliate link). Always be honest. Don't say that something made you money if it didn't.

6. Compare, Compare, Compare!

When I am trying to sell a product, I show how that product compares to two other products that are just like it. This is a tactic that fares especially well when the product I'm selling is on Amazon. Look at how BestSeekers.com compares these portable speakers to get an idea.

People that want to buy something generally know the basics of what they want. They may have a few products in mind and just need help narrowing down their selections.

When I make a comparison between the products I'm selling and other, similar products, I assist my readers in figuring out what they truly want to buy. In addition, doing so benefits me because there are three affiliate links on the page rather than just one.

As I watch what happens over time, I can tell which of the three products people like best. I can make sure that product is very visible to help with sales. Comparing products is a great way to help yourself and to help readers.