More and more people that are looking to earn some additional income around their existing job, or start their own online business are turning to affiliate marketing to make this happen. This is largely because there are a number of advantages to starting up this type of business.

The start-up costs are very low, and you don’t need a great deal of technical knowledge. The following 5 starting tips every affiliate marketer needs to really help you to make a success of your business, and will also help you to avoid the most common mistakes that people who are new to affiliate marketing make.

Make Sure Your Products Are Unique

You do not want to set yourself up in direct competition with affiliate marketers that have more experience than you do, so it is a good idea to avoid products that are being sold by a lot of other affiliates. By doing some research into the type of products that are available, and how many people are already selling these, you should be able to find something that will sell well while still being fairly unique.

Does Your Merchant Supply Tools And Resources?

You will find starting your business a much easier process if you have access to a wide range of resources and tools that can help you sell your products. When you are deciding which merchant you want to sell for, make sure you check out what support you will get in term of the resources that are available to you.

It is in the best interests of the merchant to provide you with tools so that you can make more sales, and many of them will provide images, articles and banners that you can use on your site.

What Affiliate Resources Are Available?

There are many different types of resources that are available to help you advertise the product that you will be selling. Articles can be used to describe to readers what the product is, and how it will benefit them, as can emails and free samples of eBooks.

Banners and Adwords advertisements are useful for attracting peoples attention and encouraging them to click through to your site. Having high quality product images is also an advantage so people are able to see exactly what it is they will be purchasing.

Ensure That Your Websites Are Tracked

In order to make your business as profitable as possible, you will need to know exactly where your visitors are coming from. This will provide you with valuable information about which of your advertising campaigns are the most successful at attracting visitors to your site.

Once your visitors have reached you, then you also need to know what things they are looking at on your site, and whether they are converting from visitors to buyers. There are a number of free tools that you can use for tracking, and then when your business is a bit more established you may want to upgrade to some more sophisticated software that you will have to pay for.

Can You Achieve A Passive Income?

If you sell a product to a customer, then you will receive a percentage of this sale from the merchant, and this is how you earn your money. If you sell an item that a customer will buy off you only once, then you will only receive a commission on that sale.

However, if the product you are selling comes with a membership service for which a fee is payable every month, then you will receive a commission for as long as the person you have referred continues to be a member.

Affiliate marketing can provide you with a steady income, but in order for this to be the case you need to remember that you are running a business, and be prepared to put the work in.

Following these 5 starting tips for new affiliate marketers can help give you the best possible start in your new venture.