The following article is one of a series of articles which focus on Affiliate, Article and Internet Marketing. All of the articles are based on real experiences and research done over twenty years as a personal and business coach. They are also written in response to questions which I have been asked as well as address common challenges that people have with affiliate marketing, article marketing, internet marketing or running an online business in general. I sincerely hope that you find the following information of value. One idea, one tip, one clue can make all the difference.

Affiliate Marketing: Proven Affiliate Marketing Ideas

Making money online with affiliate programs is almost a must for any webmaster that has been around for some time or at the very least adding a few Google or Yahoo text links advertisements to your web site. Many online marketers have created new blogs with Blogger or Wordpress in addition to their old or existing web sites.

Believe me, opportunities to make money online are all around you! All you have to do is to go out and grab them as fast as you can! But how?

Most of the people who want to earn money this way end up making some cash, probably enough to cover their web site's expenses. If they have designed the web site themselves, that is. Make no mistake here - you can make money online with web sites, even with very personal blogs, but it's going to take a lot of working, tweaking, and a great deal of time to get to the point where you attract a highly targeted audience to your web site.

So how do you find a good affiliate program? How do you know if it's going to earn you money or if it's going to be a total waste of money and time? Is it better to opt for a PPC program or settle for sales commissions?

Today it's a little bit different. A lot of people join affiliate programs because they've bought a product and they like it so much that they believe that product has the potential to be a worldwide success story. So why not join the business? Finding a high quality product that you genuinely like to use and are eager to promote is the best way to make money online - that's for sure.

One proven affiliate marketing idea is to write your own personal review of that product. Furthermore, credibility and trust comes from an honest review (not a whole lot of hype). Highlight the benefits, not the features, If the benefits far outweigh the shortfalls, you have a winning product. If your pre-sell is compelling enough, visitors will take your recommended call to action.

But how does this relate to your personal web site? Would you be able to make money online adding affiliate ads to your existing web site? Would your visitors be interested in clicking the "Order Now" button? For the large majority of web sites, the answer is "No". People have come to believe that text link ads are normal on a web site, and so much so that they simply ignore them.

What you need are affiliate marketing ideas proven to work! Like, for example, you can try to build a second web site. A second web site entirely dedicated to the affiliate program you've joined and try to redirect as much targeted traffic as you can from your main web site to the commercial web site.

Building mailing lists and sending tons of sales copies and newsletters used to work at some point. Now they don't or at least they don't work as well as they used to. Don't get me wrong, I still build mailing lists because I would never give up any source of income, but I know they alone won't guarantee me any money.

Using the power of direct marketing is greatly underutilized and under estimated. A good marketing move is to make the most of the seasonal promotions and advertise your business to as many people as possible. Offline advertising is a very powerful tool if you use it right. Let's say you have an Easter or Christmas promotion. You can send with every package a few printed cards with a relevant picture on one side and the address of your web site and a few words about your business on the back of the card. Let your customers send your holiday cards around and promote your business!

The online industry is extremely fast moving. Successful affiliate marketing means constantly coming up with new ideas and testing them.

I cannot stress enough that testing is vital to your longer term success. Testing highlights what needs to be dropped, what needs to be enhanced or improved and what needs to be added.

Build on the tactics that are giving you a favorable return and dump those that are costing you money.

Thousands of online affiliate marketers are barely covering their expenses from one month to the next. Our affiliate marketing colleagues do not fall into this category. To find out why, visit the link below.