In this article we will look at some important strategies for making money as an affiliate. The Internet is an unbelievable marketing tool once you use it properly. And affiliate marketing is one industry that has really benefited from the Internet.

In particular, we want to concentrate on the concept of pre-selling and how to do that properly using the internet. Pre-selling is about creating believability and trust. You need to create that kind of rapport with your viewers. You need to be seen as an expert in your field.

Let's take a look at this. As an affiliate you are given the products to sell, you join for free and you are given a website to help you make your sales.

So, if you are going to be seen as an expert there are at least a couple of things for you to do.

First, you've just gotta do something with that website. Your free website is going to be exactly the same as thousands of others and isn't going to rank with the Search Engines at all. They loathe cloned sites - in fact, they don't like anything that is duplicated. They consider them to be trash and won't recognise them after a while.

Why is that a problem? Because Search Engines will be responsible for driving at least 50% of your traffic to your website. And traffic is where your sales come from.

So what has this to do with pre-selling? Well, you won't sell anything let alone pre-selling if you don't get traffic.

Plus, your human visitor is like the Search Engine. If she sees the same web page popping up all over the internet she'll also consider it as trash and that destroys trust. And trust is a major requirement for pre-selling.

It is well worth personalizing your site. Make it your own. Even a poorly designed site is going to be better than a cloned one. If you can't do this yourself then it is worth paying to have it done.

Why pre-selling? This is in an earlier article but very quickly here it is again.

Most people are unlikely to buy on the first visit. You need to capture their information so that you can follow up. You can then build trust and position yourself as an 'expert'.

If you start out with a cloned website you won't even get out of the starting blocks.

Most people have a resistance to being 'sold' anything. Hence the use of pre-selling. Build trust with them and maybe they will buy on the 2nd, 3rd or even 7th contact.

Now let's take a look at the product you are selling.

You will need to become an expert in the product or service you are promoting. Buy it, use it, understand it. If you can't afford to buy it then you are going to have to find away to get first hand knowledge of it.

Become a product of the product. Then you are in a position to genuinely recommend it's features and benefits. You can then use the pre-sell period to describe these features and benefits.

I talk about features and benefits. Why?

Because features alone are not enough. You need to relate those features as benefits. Your viewing public have only one very selfish question in mind.

"What's in it for me?

Features will create the interest - benefits will create the sale.

Understand this - grasp this. There's a basic difference.

Then go and write your copy on your own web page describing how you personally benefited from the product. It will be easier to get it across to your audience and get them to see how they will benefit as well.

Remember that selling is about providing solutions for people. Because you are not going to have face to face contact with your viewers you are not going to know if they have any problems that require solutions. This makes it a little more difficult.

But you can make some presumptions. And that's where you can use the pre-sell period very effectively. If you know your product well you can address many presumed problems and present the solutions.

And another thing that will go down real well and create tremendous trust. Mention something that you didn't like.

Most people will appreciate your honesty. It will enhance your credibility. Anyway, no product is 100% perfect and your audience won't mind the odd negative thrown in among all the positives.

By the way - you can discuss the price. But the discussion should always be about value for money. Just because a product is expensive doesn't mean it is not worth it.

This depends on the product of course but you should be able to justify the value for money in some form or another.

Master the art of pre-selling and you will start making money as an affiliate.