Pitfalls You Need to Know and Avoid when Making Money in Affiliate Marketing

Well, You have been thinking to make money on the net. You found a new online money making venture which is affiliate marketing. You are excited about affiliate marketing, learned it diligently and then worked long hours to make your new venture succeeds. Many of the marketing techniques you applied have helped you make a number of sales. The end of the month has arrived and you can't wait to receive your first payment. When you check your affiliate account and found that the amount you will be receiving isn't as expected, you are slightly disappointed. You then check your sale history, there were several items sold returned and your affiliate commission have to be deducted for the returns.

This is disappointing but it does happen. Generally, companies don't pay commission for returned items. You need to know about this. Affiliates will not be paid a commission on a returned good but; some dishonest affiliate marketing companies can use this to scam some of your profit. You should read their returned policies and understand clearly how it will effect your affiliate commission.

When a customer send an item back, a return occurs. Charge back also can occur when the customers dispute on an amount paid for a purchase. You should look closely on those items that are being charge back or returned. If you find that the purchases charged back are always very high ticket orders then they could be giving you false information. They are doing this to keep your commission down and keep some for themselves. Keep a close watch on returns especially if you think it is occurring often.

Chargebacks can also be an signal of another more serious problems. If many of the chargebacks are occuring during the money back guarantee or initial trial period, then this is could be an indication that the product or service you are marketing isn't up to customer satisfaction. The product can be misleading or just low quality. It will affect your affiliate earning and your future as an affiliate marketer. If this occurring too often, you'll need to look for an alternative of the affiliate program to promote.

You also should be aware of which products are actually earning commission for you. Make sure you understand which products you will be earning money from to avoid disappointment later. There are companies offer a selection of products to place on your website or blog, but only several products are profitable. Before agreeing to anything like this read carefully the terms and conditions.

Finally, you also need to ensure that the products that are sold have not other conditions attached. Certain companies will only pay commission if the customers fill out the payment details instantly. If they select a product and continue to shop, you may not earn commission on the product. You can also loose commission if the customer clicks on any other links before completing the order. If a customer order 10 products you are marketing, but then clicks on other link, you'll lose the opportunity to earn a large amount of commission.
by:Alan Liew

4 Web Design Tips for Increasing Your Website's Money Making Potential

When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are four important rules of thumb to observe to make sure your website performs well.

1) Do not use splash pages
Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like "welcome" or "click here to enter". In fact, they are just that -- pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the "back" button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.

2) Have a simple and clear navigation
You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don't know how to navigate, they will leave your site.

3) Have a clear indication of where the user is
When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don't confuse your visitors because confusion means "abandon ship"!

4) Avoid using music on your site
If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they're not annoyed by some music looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it -- volume or muting controls would work fine.
by:Alan Liew