1. Write what you know. Although this might not be the way to earn the highest commission, it will help you build your site with greater ease. Adding your personality and opinions to your content means you're more likely to be noticed. Avoid being a bore to you and your readers and try to start from an area you're excited to talk about.

2. Don't use banners. Pages of banners will lead to less people clicking on your site. Not only are the banners unsightly and unprofessional, they're also ineffective at attracting success for your site.

3. Merchant programs. Although it is true that some people succeed with merchant programs, it is often a game of hit-or-miss. If you do end up selecting a merchant, try not to make a random stab in the dark and go with someone dealing in an area you know. If your merchant doesn't work out, it doesn't cost you much to switch up the links and try someone else.

4. Best Networks. Be skeptical and cautious when someone points toward a "best network." Many successful programs don't even belong to a network. Try to base your network selection on the usefulness of the features it provides. Consider also whether the network contains merchants you would like to work with.

5. Content Sites. Content sites are places that provide informative content about the products they are promoting. Although content sites are easy to build when you have some knowledge of the products you will be promoting, your ultimate goal is to entice visitors to click the link to a merchant's store.

6. Data sites. Data sites are designed to promote a specific product and get the visitor to click on the link to the merchant's store. The data sites have little content beyond prices, images, and descriptions of the product.

7. Parasites and ScumWare. These are programs that intercept your site hits toward their sites. Many of these programs disguise themselves as file sharing applications. Arm yourself with knowledge of how to get rid of these programs by going online and researching ScumWare.

8. Buying a domain name. Avoid free or personal web pages when creating a professional web site. Search engines and directories often forgo listing web pages hosted by free web page services because most don't last for long. In addition, people will tend to skip over your page if the URL looks too "personal." Invest in a good domain name that has relevance to the content in your site.

9. Hard work. Success in affiliate marketing takes a lot of time, perseverance, and patience. Though the rewards might not come immediately, keep at it and maintain your site with diligence.

10. Learning new tricks. Affiliate marketing requires you to be an expert in many fields--working knowledge of HTML, computer coding, and data feeds are a start. You also need to know something about advertising, niches, and marketing. Remember not to skimp on your education; you'll need it.

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