There are hundreds of thousands of affiliate programs out there, all of which claim to be the best. Many of them try to give you the impression that all you have to do is use their banners and links then wait for the money to start rolling in. Although this can be the case, this type of scenario normally applies to large sites with a lot of web traffic.



Choosing banners

With most affiliate programs, you are offered a variety of banners to plan on your website, as very few of them will be effective. The problems with most banners are their size. If you choose a banner that is high in size, it will take a long time to implement and use. Therefore, it's recommended that you use banners no more than 15kb in size.

When you select any types of graphical advertising, you should try and keep the theme of your website in mind. Even though graphical ads are meant to stand out and catch people's eye, they shouldn't be to the point where everything else on the page is completely ignored.

Pop ups and unders

A lot of companies will now give their affiliates the chance of using pop up or pop under ads. In most opinions, pop ups aren't the way to go. They can easily annoy visitors and are normally closed before they even have the chance to load. You should instead go for pop unders and those types that only display once per visit.

Text link ads

Once of the most successful means of advertisting is text link ads. They are easy on bandwidth, don't use a lot of space, and they easily be implemented into most types of page layouts. Good text links offer some information as to why your visitor should investigate your offers.

Email advertising

The direct promotion via email has really taken off over the last several years, although it has brought tons of spam with it. If you plan to use email as a method of advertising your products, you should stand behind what you sell and make yourself available to answer any questions.

Patience

If you feel confident that your site can generate great sales for certain company's, you should contact them to negotiate an arrangement. If they don't seem to enthused to begin with, you should remain patient as companies are approaced every day with affiliates looking to make better deals.

The reality remains that most affiliates can't deliver what they promise, and companies are aware of this.

You should always keep in mind that most forms of advertising will take time. No matter what methods you plan to use, give it some time before you make any type of decision. Although something may not happen overnight - it very well could in a few days or weeks.