I'm glad I have your attention. I'll tell you what these common mistakes are. First, listen to this: In high school I had aspirations of becoming a pro athlete. I joined Gold's Gym to get bulked up.

Man, did I get a rude awakening. The gym rats (that's what guys who hang out a gym are called) were all huge. Muscle bound freaks stared at my "pencil-neck" physique. I was intimidated.

My first day at the gym was a shocker. All these hulking dudes were lifting super heavy weights. I could barely do a handful of push ups.

I got to talking with one guy. A Greek kid one year my elder. He could bench press over 300 pounds at a bodyweight of 165 pounds. What he told me was this: Most beginning bodybuilders simply don't know what they are doing. They lift too heavy too soon. Drive their bodies into the ground. Then lose all enthusiasm for working out. Because they quickly over train and stifle muscle growth.

When I got started in Internet marketing I first found out what mistakes to avoid. My reasoning was simple. Steer clear of the pitfalls most people fall into. I just might succeed at making money online as an affiliate.

Let me tell you what I discovered...

Mistake #1: Not choosing a big enough niche. Sure niche marketing is all the rage. But if the market you choose is too small forget about it. The best way to choose a market is to see if commercial lists exist. Go to the library. Page through the Standard Rate And Data Service. If a category exists for a market in that book it's a good bet the market is deep and wide.

A third big mistake is not promoting enough. The fear is that too many promotional emails result in unsubscribes. True. However, most of those unsubscribes were not buyers. They probably never would buy anyway. Make sure you email at least two affiliate promotions per week.

Being timid about selling is yet another big mistake. I think the sales trainer, Zig Ziggler, said, "Timid salespeople have skinny children." The statement also applies to business owners and affiliate marketers. Anyone who sells needs to keep it in mind. You make your money by sending the list offers. Do it without apology.

Email is great. It allows for almost instant and cheap communication. That's the problem. The false economy of email leads affiliates to use email exclusively. Not a good idea. Because snail mail is much more profitable. Mix it up. Use both to get higher response rates and more affiliate sales.

Mistake #5: Not collecting snail mail addresses. This one is a biggie. Did you know direct mail is about ten times more responsive than email? A smart way to use direct mail is to send out postcards driving people to a lead capture page online. Then sending out emails about an affiliate product.

By avoiding the mistakes above you'll make more money as an affiliate marketer.