Do you know any tips about affilate marketing/

I am new to SEO and I would like to know what people in this forum have to say about affiliate marketing

I have been running an affiliate marketing site for 2 years and i am only now starting to make any money from it. Here are a few tips

*make sure your do some SEO (check the forum here for tips on that) on your site (remember both on and offpage optimisiation)
* If you are using product descriptions i strongly advise you to re-write them as you will get penalised for duplicate content (so you pages will not rank high or at all in google)
*you may want to look into ppc advertising to get traffic to you site in the short term as it will take time for your seo to take effect
*Last but not least be paitent it takes time to build a good quality site and generate income!

Does the program site have telephone numbers on it? If it does, will you get credit for the sales through that channel? How will the visitor/operator know that the sale originated with you?

Does the program site link to other domains or run ads? Do you share the revenue through those channels?

How long do the cookies last? Is that true?

Can you make a purchase yourself or have your friend make a purchase and confirm that the purchase was credited to you? If you test this go into their site and spend time clicking around, using the search... and then buy. Some programs lose track of the referal.

I have not set up the site as yet but I am looking into it. Thanks got all the tips any way.

This is basically all i do and have done for just shy of 5 years.

My suggestions are as follows:

1. Research the program in Google, try searches like: Program name +fraud or +scam.

2. Look for forum posts about the program. A good program always has people talking about it and the way it works.

3. Research affiliate review sites. There are tons of sites out there that have user reviews about programs.

4. Spend a little money and do a test order for yourself or find someone close to you that would have interest in the product and place an actual order. This will show you the process, you'll see the emails the customer gets, and you'll be able to see if you are compensated for the sale and what your commission rate is.

5. Speak to someone on the PHONE. Programs that only contact via the web or email are always sketchy. Talk to a real human before sending any traffic their way.

6. Choose programs that offer editable templates. IMO steer away from programs that only have a tracking ID in the URL. Its much more difficult to rank a domain that all the other affiliates have as well. These programs are for PPC and Link/banner referrals, NOT SEO.

7. Do do what nab82ba said, change product descriptions to avoid dup content penalties.

8. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Try a few programs all at once. This way if one goes under (which is unfortunately quite common) you have backups. This will also help you find to most solid programs out there. Once you lose one, get another etc.

9. Look for new programs, but be cautious. New programs have no track record so there's risk involved, but they also often have untapped products or services (its a lot easier to go after a term only a few hundred people are after, than a term like Viagra where there are thousands if not tens of thousands after it).

10. Be original - DO create your own templates in programs that allow it, alter templates offered to all affiliates in a major way. The key to being successful in Affiliate marketing is beating others with the same ammunition provided to all. YOU MUST STAND OUT TO GOOGLE, YAHOO ETC.

Good Luck!

That's very detailed, I will come back to it, thanks a lot, I am new to this forum and its looks to have good content