If you are considering joining an affiliate program to make money online or to replace your full time income, then you need to be aware of some of the pitfalls that many make. A lot of people are enamored about the hyped up website showing people making hundreds of thousands of dollars overnight and they jump into affiliate marketing without any knowledge of how it works and end up wasting a ton of time, effort and money.

Below I will share with you the 5 most common mistakes most new marketers make so you can avoid them and be more effective at making money online in a reasonable amount of time.

Pitfall #1 - Owner Competes With Affiliates

Many affiliate program owners compete with their affiliates because they are promoting everywhere they are telling their affiliates to promote but they have more money and resources than their affiliate so they end up getting all the sales and the affiliates end up wasting a tremendous amount of time and effort. You want to find an affiliate program where the owner is supporting and training you to successfully promote their product to grow their affiliate base which in turn brings them a lot more business and sales rather than competing with you and putting you out of business.

Pitfall #2 - Low Payout

You want to avoid picking an affiliate program that has a low payout commission. You don't want to pour all your effort into promoting a program that only pays out a measly 15-20% or less. Ideally something that pays out 50-75% is what you want to look for so it justifies you spend your time to send them traffic because you know you will be earning a good amount of money for the work you put in.

Pitfall #3 - Outdated Stats or no stats

Try to find a program that has quality, up to date statistics on their conversions and sales. You don't want to make the mistake of basing your marketing efforts on old out dated stats that are no longer true because you will waste your time. This is not too common as most affiliate owners keep their stats fresh but be aware of it when you are choosing a program to promote.

Pitfall #4 - Lack of Support

With some programs affiliate's end up waiting long periods of time to hear back from an affiliate program owner on questions they may have. This is not good at all as it shows the way the owner runs their operation and their most likely will be problems in the future. Look for some type of notice that the owner has a support desk or that they have a quick turn around in support questions.

Pitfall #5 - Outdated Advertising Resources and Ads

Some programs have a limited amount of advertising methods for their affiliates or only a few ads for you to use and the ads may work well at first but as time goes on and many affiliates are using the same ads, the market gets saturated and the ads become useless. The people that would buy the product start to become numb to your ads and often won't visit the site due to the fact that they were turned off by seeing the same ads over and over again. So be sure to find an affiliate program that offers a multitude of advertising ideas ranging from free to paid methods and that there are many different ads you can use that have been tested to convert highly.

Remember these 5 pitfalls when you are choosing an affiliate program to make money online and you will save yourself a lot of time and avoid a lot of frustration. You will be a lot happier and experience success a lot faster if you avoid these pitfalls.