The Top 3 Factors For Your Affiliate Marketing Success

It's hard to say how many people each day decide to try their luck with affiliate marketing. That's because most affiliate marketers never make it to their first sale - so they never really become visible in the affiliate marketing field.

If you've decided to try to make a living with affiliate marketing, this can seem like a grim statement. Most people have some vague idea of how difficult it is to build a substantial income with affiliate marketing, so for every person who tries affiliate marketing and fails, there are two or three more people who never have the confidence to begin.

Really, though, being successful in affiliate marketing largely depends on three factors. Taking all three of these factors into account before you start will put you far ahead of 99% of all of the other affiliate marketers out there, and give you an optimal chance for financial and professional success:

1) A product that is truly in demand. Most people start in affiliate marketing by promoting weight loss products, health supplements, web hosting, or some other product where supply far exceeds demand. This is a perfect recipe for failure, because there are thousands of affiliate marketers out there trying to promote the same products to a finite pool of buyers. Successful affiliate marketing depends on offering a unique product that is highly in demand, with a limited number of suppliers.

Take a look on Google or another popular search engine to see what products other affiliate marketers are targeting. Pay special attention to the pay per click ads – if marketers are spending money to promote a product, chances are good that it is a viable product that is making money for these entrepreneurs.

Better yet, use a keyword research tool like Wordtracker to find out what people are searching for. A keyword that gets a high volume of searches (100-200 per day) is a good indicator that products matching these keywords are good opportunities for you as an affiliate marketer.

2) An active support system. Most companies that sell through affiliate marketing offer marketers little or no support - they just give a couple of links, and that's about it. A good affiliate marketing program will offer tutorials, one on one coaching, and highly responsive customer service to ensure that affiliate marketers will be successful in selling its products.

A high level of support is an indicator of a successful company – it shows that the company values its affiliate marketers, and understands that its own success lies in the success of each marketer.

3) Recurring commissions. Typically, once you make a sale through an affiliate marketing program, that's it. Unless a customer wants or needs another product, you'll never hear from him again. So you're in the position of constantly chasing leads. A good affiliate marketing program allows you to be paid over and over again for the same referrals - subscription websites are excellent examples of affiliate marketing programs that can help you'realize substantial profits.

Affiliate programs that offer recurring commissions are not terribly common, but searching for one will greatly improve your chances of financial success as an affiliate marketer. You can do a Google search for “subscription affiliate programs” or “recurring commission affiliate programs” to locate opportunities that will pay you over and over for each referral you send to companies.