We all make mistakes which is nothing to be ashamed of or worried about But many mistakes can easily be avoided when we learn from the mistakes of others

Here are 25 of the most common mistakes made by affiliate marketers.

1. Spamming - Spam is unsolicited email. As well as not asking to receive it, the recipient has every right to contact your ISP or the merchant involved in the offer, both of which will likely terminate their association with you immediately. Watch out for unrealistic email promotions that offer deals for 'leads', i.e. $99.95 for 500M emails. Sending email to those addresses is spamming pure and simple.

2. Posting Ads on Forums - Akin to spamming, posting advertising on message boards gets the poster banned. Forums are excellent sources of valuable information about Internet and affiliate marketing. Avoid acting in ways that upset the board owners.

3. Not Doing Market Research - Trying to sell products that people don't want is a futile endeavor. Test the waters before investing time and money into a new project.

4. Overusing Merchant Ad Copy - Successful affiliates set themselves apart from other affiliates promoting the same products. When you use advertising copy prepared by the merchants you're not giving your visitors any new information.

5. Copyright Infringing - How would you feel if you found an exact copy of your site on someone else's domain? No doubt you'd be angry and want to put them out of business. With that in mind, treat others' work with the same respect. Always ask permission to use graphic images or text found on another site.

6. Submitting to FFA's - There are drawbacks to submitting sites to Free For All sites. Your site will never get seen, so taking the time to post is a waste of time. Worse, because most FFA's have such low rankings, your site's rankings will lower by association.

7. SHOUTING - Other than using caps to give emphasis to a few words within an email or on a web page, refrain from using capital letters. Using all capital letters in text or correspondence is symbolic of shouting, and shouting at people just makes them leave.

8. Not Responding to Visitor eMails - If a visitor emails a question to an affiliate, and that affiliate doesn't reply in a timely manner, the visitor will go elsewhere for an answer and will become someone else's customer.

9. Overusing Pop-Ups - Getting hit by multiple pop-ups is annoying. Many surfers will choose to close their browser completely rather than click 'x' 20 times. No browser - no sale.

10. Using Free Hosting & Email Accounts - How confident do you feel buying products from someone who won't pay $7.95 to register their own domain? Using free hosts and email accounts looks cheesy and loses sales.

11. Failure to Plan - As the old saying goes, 'Fail to plan, plan to fail'. Without a map a journey into unknown territory takes much longer, costs more money and may get you lost. Simplify the project by having a plan.

12. Not Having an Opt-in Newsletter - Without an opt-in list, your visitors come, and then they go. You have no way to contact them again. Those who sign up to receive your newsletters or ads are telling you that they're interested in the products you offer. That's like having a license to print money!

13. Keeping Poor or No Records - Did that check from XYZ Company arrive? Was the amount correct? If your record keeping is less than accurate, you might never know. Don't get cheated - keep track of all your business activities.

14. Building a Mall - A 'mall' site is best used as a central hub to send visitors to other domains. Mall sites don't get much search engine traffic, and they don't convert to sales. Highly focused theme sites attract traffic AND sales.

15. Advertising Offline - Most people don't jump off the couch and run to their computer to type in a URL that they've seen in the newspaper or magazine, so paying to advertise offline (as an affiliate) is generally a waste of money.

16. Banner Ad Farming - Informative text results in purchases. Lengthy pages of animated graphic banners ads simply soak up bandwidth.

17. Competition Bashing - Speaking ill of others only gives the basher a bad reputation. Mind your own business and do your own business.

18. Advertising Product Prices - Prices change all the time. With the exception of current price quotes placed in your newsletter, product prices do not belong on your site.

19. Out-of-Date Advertising - Banners or text links that expire are guaranteed to eventually send your visitor to a broken link or show a broken graphic on your page. Time sensitive advertising is best used only in email advertising campaigns.

20. Using 'Leaky' Links - Do you take money out of your wallet and throw it away? That's exactly what you are if doing when you pay for traffic and then send visitors to another site through anything other than affiliate links.

21. Placing Affiliate Links on the Homepage - Putting affiliate links on your homepage is like showing visitors in the front door and immediately out the back. Give them a chance to browse, sign up for your newsletter and decide that they'd like to come back to your place before introducing them to your very attractive friends.

22. Trying to Do it All - Don't be a 'Jack-of-all-trades' and master of none. Hire an expert when required and save your time and money.

23. Not Investing in Education - Technology changes with amazing speed. Keep up on this rapidly evolving industry through research and education. Materials and courses are a tax write-off, and will pay you back many times over in additional revenue.

24. Failing to Act - What isn't started, doesn't get done. It's true that the first step is the hardest, but if you never act, you'll never enjoy the incredible rewards waiting just for you!

25. Giving Up - Just as Rome wasn't built in a day, don't expect overnight riches from the 'Net. Enjoy the process, know that some days will be more challenging than others and keep at it. Persistence is the single most important factor in determining success online or off. Be persistent and be successful!

Save yourself considerable frustration. Avoid the 25 mistakes above and you'll be well on your way to becoming a successful affiliate marketer.

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