Affiliate marketing is not a new business model, but it is getting a lot of flak from people who are just getting familiar with it. For some reason, people have difficulty believing that affiliates can actually be honest with their reviews and claims. That could be partially due to the fact that some affiliates have overstepped the lines and done shady things in the past. Having some affiliates and marketers getting busted for misrepresenting products does not hurt either. But not all affiliates are out there to trick people into buying stuff. Being honest and promoting products worth promoting is a good start.

It goes without saying that your affiliate business can go out of business in a flash if you are busted for doing fake reviews. If your affiliate business is large, the PR disaster would be even worse. Yes. We all want to sell more products but affiliates can make money by doing things the right way. Here are 5 ways you can write legitimate reviews to make money as an affiliate:

• Actually review products: too many affiliates cut corners when reviewing products. It’s so easy to grab product description from Amazon and present that as your real review. But that’s what gets affiliate in trouble. If you are trying to sell a product to your audience, you may as well test it to see if it works as advertised.
• Be honest: if a product is terrible, don’t promote it. Nobody is forcing you to promote something that is not up to your standards (or your audience’s). Lying about a product may get you some sales in the short-term but people are not stupid. They will return those products and may come after you too.
• Think of negatives too: just because you are trying to promote a product does not mean that you should forget about the short-comings of that product. No product is perfect. Your review will look more credible if you address some of the faults of the products you are reviewing.
• Avoid copying others: there are so many affiliates who just copy everything others say about a product. It happens to my own sites all the time. What if I am wrong in my assessment of a product? Copying my work wouldn’t help anyone. Besides, shoppers are always looking for unique perspectives about products they are trying to buy. Coming up with unique content may be difficult but it is worth it in the end.
• Be transparent: affiliates are always scared to disclose their relationship with their merchants. It’s true that some people won’t buy using your links if you do that. But at least, you get to put all your cards on the table.

Being dishonest with your affiliate reviews is not going to help your affiliate business one bit. You may make a few sales, but complaints (and returns) will come back to haunt you in the future.

Affiliate marketing is a game of percentages. Getting paid 8.5% percent per sale instead of 7% can make a big difference if you have enough volume going for you. Affiliate programs such as that of Amazon’s for long have practiced this concept. The more you deliver to them, the more they are willing to increase your commission. That ought to be a good deal for those of you who are not planning to break the bank on trying to make HDTV buyers out of people who just can’t afford them.

Let’s take Amazon Associates Program. It’s one of the best affiliate programs around and can generate a ton of cash for you if you play your cards right. A lot of newbie affiliates go after those big items to make as much money as possible. Selling a HDTV is not going to be as easy as selling a pair of headphones. Besides, since most affiliate program do have some restrictions on the amount of money you can earn per transaction, you may need a more well-rounded plan to get the most out of your affiliate efforts.

One of the best ways to play the above-mentioned rules to your advantage is by pushing to cheap products. If you are in the e-book reader business, you can push free Kindle e-books. Want to sell some grills? Why not create a site about grill add-0ns? The same can be applied to almost any market. Such strategy can not only help you make a decent change, it can help you get to those higher performance tiers and sell some real big things in the process.

Somebody who is looking for blu-ray media may not be ready to buy a HDTV or a new blu-ray, but they may be interested in buying other blu-ray related products. By pushing the right products, you can get the most out of each click you send your affiliate partners’ ways. Besides, promoting a $20 product is in some ways much easier than selling a $500 or $1000 item. It may not pay nearly the same, but if you sell enough units, you could catch up real fast.

You don’t have to look hard to find people who are supposedly selling the secrets to a hidden fortune. A fortune that they have been tapping into while everyone else’s been just doing things the wrong way. It’s funny how not a lot of people pause for a minute to think about how these folks make money. They may not make all their revenue from selling these products, but these gurus would not be doing it if they were not making a decent amount of profit.

I would not say that these products are all useless. But if you keep going through them without taking any action, you are wasting your time. Affiliate marketing is not about how much more your know in comparison to others. It’s about taking action. Here are 5 reasons why I do not recommend most affiliate training products:

• Practice makes perfect: you can read thousands of books on affiliate marketing. That still does not make you a decent affiliate marketer. Unless you are practicing what you are learning, you are wasting your time. Not every issue is covered in those books, so getting your feet wet in this business can be pretty eye opening.
• No need to go through rehashed content: a lot of these gurus have made a living out of rehashing their old content and repackaging them to sell them for more profit. That means you won’t be getting a good bang for your buck if you keep buying these courses.
• Most courses are a waste of money: the majority of courses on the market are a waste of time and money. They do not teach you anything more than you can learn from a book and cost a whole bunch more. These gurus are great marketers, but that does not mean they have the greatest products.
• Beware of misleading tactics: I remember purchasing a course on how to master Google Adwords a few years ago. It was full of hacks and tricks that could get you banned on Google and kill your business. I was an experienced affiliate at the time, so I was familiar with some of those tactics. But some who weren’t probably got in trouble for using those tactics (e.g. cookie stuffing, …)
• You got to start somewhere: indecisiveness can kill your business. You are not going to get anything done if you are constantly reading or tweeting each day. You got to have a goal and stick with it. It’s as simple as that.

There are a few good training courses out there. With that said, you don’t want to keep picking training courses up and not take action in the process. To be successful in affiliate marketing, you need practice not theory.

Let’s face it. Not every affiliate has the technical & marketing knowledge to develop highly sophisticated affiliate campaigns. Some of the tactics used by newbie affiliates is sound and can serve as a stepping stone to build a highly sophisticated affiliate business in future. Spamming blogs is not one of those tactics. Blog spamming has been around for quite some time. Many aggressive marketers used it a few years ago to gain yes-follow links from other sites and push the products they were promoting on other sites. These days, the practice has become silly.

You don’t have to have a super popular blog to start getting those spam messages. Some of them are actually very sophisticated while others are easy to figure out. When someone uses the term “Poker Affiliate” as user-name to comment on a site, it’s clearly obvious what they are doing. Sometimes, spammers go beyond that and make it a bit more difficult to realize what they are doing. Comments that don’t read like an automated message are harder to figure out.

Does comment spamming work? I have seen many sophisticated bloggers actually let these comments through. The fact is, many top bloggers don’t have the time to go through each comment to figure out whether people are trying to spam their websites. If one can get enough clicks to their links on those popular sites, they may pull off a sale or two. But this is not the way to build a long-term business. It’s short-term at best. There are plenty of legit ways to make money online. It’s too sad some people prefer trying sneaky things instead of building their business.

There are plenty of experts who are being too optimistic about the possibility of an Internet tax being legislated by the current administration and the upcoming Congress. We all want to believe that the legislators won’t make the mistake of taxing small businesses further in these economic times. But with the country’s deficit hitting astronomical highs, it’s almost inevitable that there will be such a tax to pay for some of the things the country is spending money on. It’s not an ideal situation, but that move could lead to some of affiliates going completely out of business.

Affiliates really have three choice about it. They can either complain and moan about how unfair life is, pray to God or whomever they worship to stop the Internet tax, or prepare for tough times ahead. While we are in an election year, the chances of such a bill passing are slim to none. But don’t hold your breath the next year or the year after that. There will be time when the government needs to find new sources of revenue (taxing marijuana use would be one way to do it). As an affiliate, you don’t want to sit around and wait for it all to come crashing down. Better be prepared than sorry. With that said, here are 5 ways affiliates can get prepared for the “soon-to-come” Internet tax:

• Focus on products not affected: not every product and affiliate program is going to be affected by Internet tax. Let’s hope not. Besides, there will be companies that will keep their affiliates around. It never hurts to explore new markets and affiliate programs to make sure you are ready when such a tax goes down.
• Start a membership site: as an affiliate, you don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you go out of business as soon as Internet tax is legislated. If you have a recurring source of income, you won’t be too desperate if your largest partner kicks you out. Starting a membership site can be your way out.
• Sell your own product: I have never considered affiliate marketing a career. Sure. There are plenty of people who make lots of money from affiliate programs. That does not mean that’s the best way to get rich. Selling your own product gives you control and makes sure you are not susceptible to sudden changes in your market.
• Build relationship with other affiliates: products and services go away. Money is lost and gained all the time. The relationship you build with your peers tend to last longer. They can open doors for you and help you handle disasters much more easily.
• Focus on quality on your blog: if you have been selling products through your blog, now’s the time to focus on the quality of your blog. Trying to sell a product everytime you post something may be tempting, but having a blog that people actually follow and subscribe too can give you yet another way to make money online and protect your business against major changes in your industry.

The so-called Internet tax is not here yet. That does not mean you can just relax and forget about expanding your business. It’d be nice if the affiliate community can stop such tax from going through but don’t bet your house on it.

Affiliate marketing can be very lucrative, but from time to time you may find yourself struggling to grab the money you have earned from your affiliate partner. If you happen to deal with networks such as CJ and LinkShare, you have more leverage to put pressure on your partner. Unfortunately, that is not the case if you are a part of one of those smaller networks. A lot of times, those smaller networks only cover software issues and give your affiliate partner the final say on payments. That can be dangerous if your partner turns out to be a greedy business that’s willing to rob its affiliates out of their commissions.

Trying to get your commission from your affiliate partner can be difficult if you don’t have too much leverage. Once a company decides to go rogue and steal from its affiliates, then all rules are out of the window. That is actually very rare. Most companies that I have personally had issues with have not been rogue. Sometimes there are misunderstandings. It is essential for all affiliates to try their best to reach out their merchants before doing something drastic.

Here are 5 ways I would try to get my commission from my merchants:

• Contact and ask for explanation: mistakes happen. Assuming the worst is not going to help anyone. Affiliates should never do anything drastic without trying to contact their partner. Most ethical merchants will try to work with you and provide you with an explanation why your commission check has been held. Of course, from time to time, you may end up with a non-responsive partner.
• Do not sound desperate: acting desperate and begging for your commission check is not going to help. Staying professional is the way to go with dealing with a rogue partner. If they don’t respond to you, contact them again. Just don’t write graphic e-mails as that won’t solve anything.
• Search the Web for other forms of communication: affiliate partners that ignore their affiliates’ emails are very problematic. Sometimes, your e-mail could be filtered by your partners’ filters. So try to figure out if there is any other way you can communicate with your partner. Don’t assume the worst without trying other ways to reach out to your partner.
• Don’t burn your bridges unless you have to: don’t burn bridges with a partner if you disagree on one or two payments. I have had issues with many major affiliate programs in the past. Minor problems I can live with. As long as your partner is willing to communicate with you and try to work with you, there is no reason to burn your bridges with them.
• Use your channels to your advantage: if all has failed, you can use your social media presence and forums to put pressure on a non-paying affiliate partner. This is not an ideal solution, but if your partner does not respond to your e-mails, then you’ve got no choice (especially if we are talking about a significant amount of commission). Try to reach out to your partners on Twitter or Facebook if they are there. If they still don’t respond, it may be time to make your episode public. Not the best solution out there, but there is no harm in letting other affiliates know about your rogue merchant (staying professional here is a must).

There is no right way to deal with rogue affiliate programs. Every situation is different. What you don’t want to do as an affiliate is getting into a name calling contest with someone. Thankfully, there are not too many of these affiliate programs around. Doing your research before partnering up with someone can reduce the chances of you having to deal with this issue.

Many new affiliates start selling products using their blog. Plenty of so-called “gurus” recommend blogging to newbies and talk about those hidden gold-mines. Blogging can be a lucrative business if you manage to drive enough traffic to your website. If you are passionate about a topic and don’t mind going out of your way to break stories and create top notch articles, there is money for you to be made. The trouble is, a blog is never going to be something you can rely on to make a living. Blogs can be cloned too easily. It’s a highly competitive business and can be volatile as well. Who knows when Google decides to slap your blog.

Most smart affiliates work on developing multiple streams of income to make sure they are not affected by every little change in their market. Let’s face it. Nobody likes to fail in any channel. But that’s the reality of doing business online.Even top bloggers are working on their membership sites, books, e-courses, and paid communities. Those are in addition to sponsorships and ads they display on their blogs.

Blogging can help improve your website’s rankings. That’s a given as long as you are willing to post an article or two every single day (with the right keywords for your business). But it won’t work as a long-term solution for your affiliate business unless you take time to give your website an edge over your competitors. That means working on your newsletter, boosting your social media profiles, creating your own products, and forming joint partnerships with other top affiliates.

Affiliate marketing may look easy on paper, but it does require a lot of work for those who want to succeed (not just make the minimum living). If you have time to relax as an affiliate, you are doing something wrong.

Let’s face it. The Internet Tax is coming. When you see tech websites argue for such tax, you know the writing is on the wall. Unfortunately, the country is spending more than it gathers in revenue, which means someone has to pay the bills. Internet tax bills have been brought forth in the past and defeated in some cases (a couple of states did pass them). The Mainstreet Faireness Act that was introduced by democrats just recently will allow states to impose sales taxes on online sellers/retailers. That means only one thing. A lot of affiliates are going to get the shaft if such a bill passes. I happen to agree with eBay’s take on this:

Year after year, supporters of increased Internet sales taxes recommend legislation that would impose significant new costs on hundreds of thousands of online small businesses and e-commerce entrepreneurs, which is sure to harm the economy and kill small business jobs.

Unlike eBay, I am not confident of anything when it comes to this bill. This is the perfect opportunity for pro-internet-tax crowd to pass this legislation and bring a whole new reality to light for thousands of affiliates.

Bill Synder did his best job to promote Internet tax. Of course, he did not make any new points nor did he talk about the necessity to cut some of those expenses instead of killing small businesses. The Internet has given plenty of small businesses and affiliates the chance to stay afloat in these tough times. Internet tax may bring more revenue to states in some ways but it will kill businesses that pay taxes to the states too. No one seems to take that into account.

Politicizing Internet tax is a waste of time. As an affiliate, I am preparing myself for the worst. This is the time when affiliates need to pay more attention and start creating their own products. Times are going to get tough for those who rely solely on Amazon, eBay, and other e-retailers to make it as affiliates.

Newbie affiliates are desperate to see real results as soon as possible. Let’s face it. When you are just starting in this business, you want to figure out if going full-time with your affiliate business is feasible. So it’s normal for beginners to only promote products that pay well and give them a good chance at a big fat commission check. The trouble is, promoting free products could end up paying more over the long run. But you would not know that unless you test them out.

So why should you promote free products? It depends. You don’t want to promote products that offer no up-sell opportunity. If your affiliate partner has a large selection of free and paid products (and offers hop-links), you can get people to your partner’s site more easily by pushing those free products. Take Amazon for instance. Pushing to $1 items may not look smart on the paper. However, Amazon does pay affiliate commissions on every other item your leads purchase. We all know how tempting Amazon’s online store can be.

I am not suggesting that affiliates should forget about the amount of money they can potentially earn from their efforts. But testing different strategies is a must if you want to improve your earnings. If you happen to be working with an affiliate partner that pays you handsomely for your leads, there is no reason to use those free (or close to free) products to your advantage to get more leads to your partner’s door.

I am a big fan of spying on what other affiliates are doing to push certain products. No one has the “perfect” strategy, but there are things we all can learn by looking at other people’s work. There are lots of tools that let you spy on your competitors but not too many of them bring everything together under one interface. As an affiliate, you do not want to just pay attention to others’ PPC campaigns. Their SEO campaigns, keywords, and everything else matter too. That’s where iSpionage comes into play. It lets people spy on their competitors’ SEO and PPC campaigns and gather some valuable data for further analysis.

iSpionage brings it all together. All you have to do is enter a keyword or a website and the tool will go to work for you. It grabs all kinds of information based on your input. If you enter a keyword, the tool will show you the SEO and PPC players for that keyword. It also shows the ads that are running for that keyword.

iSpionage provides you with SEO ranking information and link information for your competitors too. Just by looking at some of this data, you can come up with all kinds of ideas for your own campaigns. Of course, you can export them all and do a more complete analysis on it all.

At the end of the day, iSpionage is just a tool. The data you get from this tool won’t matter unless you do something with it. Nevertheless, it’s nice to have a tool that brings SEO and PPC data together.