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Affiliate marketing allows one to make a lot of money by selling other peoples products.  This means you can start from scratch without first creating a product or website.  You can use other people’s time, effort and resources for your own gain as you make money when you sell their work.  As great as these sounds, there are five success factors you should consider before jumping into the affiliate game.

1. Assess the quality of the affiliate product.  Evaluate if the product delivers what it promises by checking online reviews and asking for testimonials from the owner.  This will maintain your creditability and reputation as an affiliate marketer.
2. Evaluate the sales copy to be sure it closes the deal.  Study the owner’s website and squeeze page to determine if the sales copywriting is professional and can close the sale when you send traffic to this site.  Ask about conversion rates and visitor statistics.  Do not waste your time with products that have poor sales copy on the landing page.
3. Check promotional materials before you start selling affiliate products.  This is a time saver if the owner has already designed promotional tools that can be used in your marketing campaign.  You must test your sales copy and track your results for each marketing campaign.  If you don’t test and track your results, then you are only guessing what works.  The more tools in the toolbox, the more sales you can make to increase your earnings.
4. Determine your target audience for the product you are selling.  This is the biggest factor between success and failure.  If you get the target wrong, you will not make money.  When have you been targeted for a product, but did not buy it? Affiliate marketing is simply giving people what they want.  If you try to sell copywriting products to pet owners, you will not have much success regardless of the value of your marketing plan.
5. Determine your profit margins before starting your marketing campaign.  This is as simple as knowing how much commission you get for each sale and the cost to make the sale.  If you make a profit after deducting your expenses, then you can make money selling these products.  Also, look for residual income as part of your profits to maximize your marketing efforts per sale.

If you are using one of the affiliate producers such as Commission Junction, then it is easy to evaluate the five success factors from their website.  If you follow these five success factors, you will have success and make money doing affiliate marketing.  The critical success factor is selling the right product to the right target audience for the right amount of commissions.