Trying Googling 'Affiliate Marketing' and it will show you more than 24,000,000 results in less then 0.5 seconds. It goes without saying that affiliate marketing is one of the most competitive field in the world wide web which requires a lot of perseverance, hard work, smart work, knowledge and awareness. 

But we are not going to be talking about virtues here...today we'd like to tell you about 7 Deadly sins that most affiliate marketers commit when stepping into this field. Some manage to survive, some of them phase out and most of them simply vanish. 

The first mistake that most newbies make in the affiliate business is that they jump in too fast too soon without fully understanding the intricacies of affiliate marketing. They get excited about a new product or service and jump into the bandwagon without carrying the baggage of knowledge. Affiliate marketing is no rocket science, in fact it is very interesting way of earning few or loads of bucks online, but before you take the leap make sure all your harnesses are in place. 

It is surprising but very common to see many people not really knowing what they are selling as an affiliate. It could be a new product or an innovative service, but if you don't have a first-hand experience on something, how do you expect to convince someone else to buy it? It is very important to understand that whatever you sell on your website/blog it reflects on you; if your visitors don't like what you recommend or have a bad experience with it...eventually they will judge you. 

Another mistake that newbies tend make is that they try to promote too many products at the same time, and confuse their visitors with heaps of products featuring on their site. Trying to be an affiliate superhero won't do any good, it sure is tempting when you realize that how affiliate marketing can actually earn you big bucks, but that doesn't mean that you compromise on quality. The best way to go about it to promote variety of products that you think holds value, be sincere in what you promote and provide your readers with enough info and reviews so that they can make an informed decision and not get put off by too much stuff to choose from. 

There are many affiliate marketers who tend to get carried away and start promoting the 'program' rather than the 'product'. There are many affiliate companies that offer two-tier affiliate program and offer commission for every new affiliate that a person brings into the program. The reason why this method gets so tempting is that, for every sale by the person that 'you' refer, earns you certain amount of commission too. But if you start selling the program, then who's gonna sell the product? You should concentrate on finding the right people for the product/service that you promote, and in the meanwhile welcome others to be a part of the program too. 

There are many paid methods of marketing, PPC (Pay Per Click) being the most popular one. Although there are many ways in which you can pay for successful marketing campaigns, but why let the free stuff slip away? With plethora of social networking sites, increasing popularity of social bookmarking sites and most importantly people's trust towards word of mouth and reviews by real people, you don't have to be a genius to realize that its free and organic traffic. Sure, it requires a lot of hard work and brainstorming, but it does pay off in the long run. 

Someone very rightly said, "effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit" and in affiliate marketing  you will see many new names and products popping up as frequently as they vanish. As we said in the beginning of the post that marketing requires lot of hard work and perseverance, and no matter how brutally unsatisfying the results may seem in the beginning, relinquishment is never the answer. Reconsider various factors, follow trends, analyze and understand different strategies and try again; don't expect results overnight. Stay focused, keep your goals in mind and stay positive...and never quit.