If I could give only one piece of advice to a beginning affiliate marketer, it would be this: stop the spending. Most oftentimes, new Internet marketers and affiliate product marketers grab up products and software packages left and right.

Whenever they see anything for sale – especially if it’s the next big ticket product – they’ll buy it. They’ll get seduced by the copy; and they’ll whip out their credit cards, buying when they really shouldn’t. So, my advice to you is STOP!

Now, you might protest. You might say that you need the information. You might grumble stuff about needing to spend money in order to make money. But ask yourself where you read lines like that. Did you read them on a sales page? Did you hear them coming from someone who sells the products you’ve recently purchased?

If so, that person was almost definitely saying it to loosen up your wallet. So tighten up your wallet again. Build up a resistance to buying.

Now, many people do not realize this, but the Internet is just brimming over with free information. Much of it is comparable to what you will find in products you might pay $30, $50, or even $100 for. While you might expect to get more from those products – or at least some guarantee to their quality – purchasing them is usually unnecessary – entirely.

In most cases, 90% of people who purchase these E-books skim them, consider incorporating a few new interesting ideas into their business models – but, for the most part, ignore the bulk of the text and go on their merry way.

If this is what you do with these E-books, too, (and it probably is), then your wallet would be better served by saving all that cash.

Instead of purchasing E-books you can’t and won’t use, save your money and spend your time getting a first class education from completely free information. If you’re an Internet marketer or affiliate marketer, spend some time on sites such as Problogger.net and the Problogger forum.

Rather than focusing on all sorts of tricks – which have probably never worked once for you – spend your time attempting to improve your current business model, which is likely flawed, but contains many functional elements.

Ask yourself whether there are considerable leakages to your current model that could be improved. For instance, are you tracking all of your advertising efforts? If not, how can you expect to know which ones are successful and which ones are not? Also, are you advertising in every possible place where you could get a decent return? If not, you’re leaving money on the table!

So, rather than consistently shooting for the moon – and spending hundreds of dollars to figure out how to do it – keep that cash in your wallet. Instead, work on slight, but continuous, improvements to your current business model.

This un-sexy approach – slight, but continuous improvements – is precisely what major companies, such as Toyota, have used to continually get better and better, capture a larger market share, and out-compete competitors who are stagnant or are risking too much.

And there you have it – The suggestion I have to any new affiliate marketer is not a “tactic” at all. Instead, I want you to avoid the gimmicks, cut back on unnecessary spending, and focus on your own business model. After all, you know far more about your own business model than any guru does.

So focus on continuous improvement; focus on making more and more affiliate product sales each day; and try to avoid all of the “must have” products. In no time, you’ll be earning what you want.

Good luck and please do share your success stories with us! I love to celebrate with affiliate marketers when they’ve achieved various milestones!

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result. If you are on the completely wrong path – if you are seeing no results whatsoever – then it is time to try something different. Or it is time to accept that you are simply insane; and should seek help before you try to make a foray into affiliate marketing.

Now, even if you are getting good results, you need to figure out how you can ramp up the process, so that you don’t continue to replicate mediocrity. If you want to make a six figure income – and possibly a seven figure income – then you have to do something that is truly different than what you are doing now. You will somehow have to boost your sales volume by a factor of 10 or even 50.

The big question is “how can I do this”? Here’s what I suggest:

Tip #1: Start Acting Like a Business Owner

Right now, you’re probably enamored with the idea of the rugged, individualistic affiliate marketer – a person who sells thousands and thousands of products by himself and with no help at all. You might conjure up an image in your head of an Internet marketer who needs no one else, but generates all of his multi-millions on his own.

If you want to be a super affiliate, you have to let go of this idea. It is pure fantasy. Most big name Internet marketers and affiliate product marketers have a team of either contract laborers, freelancers, or paid staff. If you want to be a successful affiliate product marketer, you have to find people who can augment your weakness (and, trust me, no matter how smart you are, you have plenty of weaknesses).

Additionally, affiliate marketers do not work in isolation. Most of them are friends with the marketers they sell products for; and this gives them far more leverage and information than you have access to.

So start thinking of yourself as a business owner, rather than a completely self-sufficient Internet marketer.

Tip #2: Concentrate on Regular Sales

While big launches can be promising – and the idea of $500 commissions can be enticing – focus on regular sales, rather than pie-in-the-sky, lottery winnings. Regular sales are easier to quantify and predict; and, for this reason, it is far easier to continually ramp up small, regular sales until you are making hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars each year.

John Reese, for instance, sold tons of small affiliate products before he became a well-known Internet marketer. He sold things like golf balls and clubs in massive quantities; and makes a regular income of more than $50,000 per month doing so.

So don’t worry if you’re the top affiliate for some major new product launch. Instead, focus on regular sales and regular increases in sales.

Tip #3: Do What They Do – Not What They Say

By now, you’ve heard this dozens of times, but I bet you’ve only actually done it a few times. Next time an Internet marketer unveils a new way to make a killing with affiliate marketing, ignore it. Don’t buy the book. Don’t listen to what he says. Instead, watch what he does.

Observe the channels through which he promotes his product. Watch carefully to determine what methods he’s using to make sales, so you can replicate his successes, rather than chasing after dreams he’s written about.

Conclusion

There’s no single path to affiliate marketing riches – and that’s a good thing. Instead, there are many pathways through which you can make your millions. So scout carefully, look for functional methods you can use, and implement them in your own efforts.

You may be surprised with the results. But whatever you do – don’t continue to use strategies that haven’t worked in the past.

So what is it that allows a super affiliate to make hundreds or even thousands of sales when you struggle to make 5 sales of the same product? Why is that that super affiliates rake in the cash while you struggle to just get by?

Think about this carefully: you’re both selling the exact same product. The only possible difference is the tactics you use to market it. Below, I’ve included a couple tactics that you should use to sell more like super affiliates. Try to incorporate them into your strategy.

Tactic #1: Play the Long Game

Without exception, super affiliates almost always have access to a very large, captive audience. Rather than scraping to find customers whenever a new product goes live, they usually have those customers well in advance; and they are pre-selling them the whole time leading up to the product launch.

In contrast, less successful affiliate marketers often use a sort of Google Cash approach to everything.

Whenever some new launch is coming up, they’ll throw together a promotional website; and try to direct traffic to it using pay per click search engine advertisements or solo ads.

But there’s a major flaw with this approach: almost without exception, people will purchase a “big launch” product from an Internet marketer they already know.

This is why you have to play the long game. Rather than focusing on each individual launch, prepare an approach that will work consistently for years. Start by building a list and sending ALL of your traffic there. This is exactly what super affiliates do; and this is what you should do, too, if you want to make more sales.

Tactic #2: Steal from Super Affiliates Whenever Possible

Many super affiliates are also big name Internet marketers. They have public personas that you can follow quite easily. You can find their userIDs on forums. You can scout out their blogs. You can join their mailing lists. You can find out which sites they own.

I encourage you to follow a handful of super affiliates carefully and steal every single lesson they offer unintentionally. Sign up for their mailing list and watch out they start to pre-sell products; or how they avoid pre-sales and then talk about the product several days after the launch.

There are dozens of different approaches that super affiliates take. None of these approaches is necessarily the “right” approach, but you can learn from each of them, since they are probably successful if a super affiliate is using them.

Tactic #3: Ignore Talk; Look for Revealed Preference

Talk is just that: talk. Many Internet marketers will talk about all sorts of different methods you can use to make money. They’ll tell you to advertise using Google Adwords or to build a list or to create viral reports.

While some of this information may be useful and legitimate, I would encourage you to ignore what they say and watch what they do. This is called “revealed preference.” If something works, they are likely to use it again and again, so look out for those things and ignore the babble.

Tactic #4: Make Friends with the Seller

Believe it or not, the seller wants you to be successful, too. So contact him ahead of time, make friends with him; and see if he has any particular advice for you on selling the product. Keep in mind that he talks to a lot of affiliates on a regular basis (especially around big launches) and has the best understanding of the tactics they actually use.

Conclusion

Super affiliates use a range of tactics in order to consistently outperform other affiliates. But one thing they always do is play the long game. They build lists, create forums, and secure a captive audience in advance of product releases.

One of the things about being a super affiliate is that your status allows you to gain a lot of recognition among marketers, and sometimes will allow you to capture the attention of companies or individuals that would love to have you take part in their affiliate marketing programs.

Here are some tips on how your status as a super affiliate can be utilized to build your influence as well as bring you ever-greater profits.

Getting the most out of your status as a super affiliate can often begin with a very simple decision on your part to share the wealth of your experience. Because of your success with affiliate marketing, you can easily help persons that are new to the business avoid some of the more common mistakes.

With your guidance, they will not get caught up in some of the side roads that all too often are part of the learning process when it comes to becoming a competent affiliate marketer.

Having that bank of knowledge at your fingertips and being willing to share it with others will do nothing but enhance your reputation in the industry. You can also help to improve the image of the affiliate marketer, since way too many people still associate affiliate marketing with email spam. By pointing out ethical ways to market products and promote yourself, up to and including opt-in mailing lists that are qualified, you do the business in general a service, even as you make your presence even more visible.

Another advantage of your status as a super affiliate has to do with the ability to pick and choose various affiliate programs. As is true with any business community, word about success travels fast among marketers.

Once your name or the name of your affiliate marketing entity begins to make the rounds of the business world as a heavy hitter, you may find that your days of looking for affiliate marketing opportunities is over. Instead, companies come to you with solid offers and perks in an effort to entice you to represent them through an affiliate program.

This sort of recognition can be personally as well as professionally rewarding. It is one thing to be able to secure work whenever you go looking for it. It is quite another to have the work come looking for you.

For super affiliates that like to meet and greet people, you may find that you can pick up some additional income hitting the speaking circuit.

With the name value that your status as a super affiliate has generated, it is not outside the realm of possibility that you could make a handsome amount of money by making yourself available to speak at conferences and other gatherings devoted to affiliate marketers.

Holding workshops at these sorts of events is another way you could earn some extra cash. Because you would basically be helping to motivate other people to do what you have done so well, it would not take a great deal to prepare the materials and be ready to deliver a keynote speech at such an event.

As another perk, you may be able to have all the expenses paid, so you have no out of pocket expense.

Making the most of your status as a super affiliate means enjoying the opportunities that come to you through word of mouth; additionally, it means taking matters into your own hands and promoting your status in such a way that you increase your visibility.

Keep in mind that anything you do to promote yourself will not only open doors to new means of generating revenue, but it will probably also create additional traffic to those places that made you a super affiliate in the first place.

By maximizing your options, you can rest assured of having an excellent revenue stream for many years to come.