Affiliate marketing can be an important part of your online presence. You need to do all of your research so that you don't wind up losing a ton of money or even losing customers and traffic to your website. There are some tips listed below to help you begin doing this properly.

Keep your website free of affiliate clutter! Include a maximum of three ad graphics on a page, and 3-5 links within the content itself. You need to focus on the quality of affiliate links to attract customers to buy, and NOT the quantity as it will overwhelm readers and drive them away.

Do your homework and don't get scammed. Do plenty of research into potential affiliate marketing programs before deciding on one. Realize that any program that wants you to pay to become an affiliate or demands that you purchase their product first are not legitimate. There are plenty of honest affiliate marketing programs out there, but there are just as many bad ones.

Make sure that you are helping your readers with your affiliate ads. Instead of looking like someone who wants to cash in on a sale using a list to get people to click on affiliate links, try be detailed with a review and then plugging the link into that. Put in some effort to get them to click on your ads.

In affiliate marketing, patience is important. Don't be discouraged if your site isn't making your business money yet, affiliate marketing revenue grows over time. One long time customer can help to grow your revenue, as well as refer other people to your site. Keep producing content and be patient until your work begins to pay off.

When you are building up your email list, give people lots of free information. Everyone is reluctant to give out their email address up front in exchange for information, even if it's free. Give them a bunch up front, and because if you only use high-quality information, they will WANT to sign up on your email list.

If you plan on using affiliate programs to make a living or even to just boost your income, be sure to analyze your expectations. Affiliate programs can earn decent profits, but very few get wealthy this way. If you devote part-time working hours to it, expect to make a couple hundred dollars a month; if you work full-time at affiliate programs, you could make around $30,000 to $40,000 annually. But hey! - that's not bad you know!

Create a mini-site. A typical mini-site has just one page which is essentially a sales pitch culminating in an order. This page concentrates exclusively on getting your customer to make the purchase. There are no other distractions, no external links to other resources, and no unnecessary graphics. It's quick to set up, and you get good conversion rates.

Pay attention to the look of your site and make sure it portrays the image you want it to. If you have a very feminine site with lots of pink and pictures of cats and you are trying to sell power tools, something is not adding up right. Build your site for your customer, not for you.

Make sure that when you are on the forums promoting your product that you do not spam. This will just irritate potential customers. They will not only refrain from purchasing your product but could spread negative information that could ruin your operation. Always contribute fascinating and pertinent comments on forums.

Affiliate marketing can be very rewarding, but it can also be a lot of work. Regardless, if you know what to do and how to market smarter, you can make bigger profits. So, do yourself a favor by doing your research and applying the above tips to your affiliate marketing.