Affiliate marketing can be one of the most rewarding ways to make money online. It can be extremely lucrative when done correctly. However, as an affiliate marketer you need to know how to successfully market a product that belongs to another company or person. Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to create a solid income stream, but it’s not simple. It takes skill and knowledge. Here are two of the most common pitfalls made by new affiliate marketers that ultimately can lead them to fail.

Pitfall #1 Choosing Products to Promote Based on the Size of Commission
This is a common mistake that is made by new affiliate marketers. They look for products that have the highest commission and choose affiliates solely based on the amount of commission paid per sale. However, you need to remember that your goal is to make an income stream that will last long term into your future.

To do that you need more than a crappy product that pays a high commission. You want to start to create trust in your visitors so that they come back and buy from you repeatedly. To do that you need to offer a legitimate product. You also need to try this product and be able to say this is something that you believe in and that you would use. This will build relevance and trust for you and your company and help to create a long-term income stream for you. As you add new products over time, your customers are going to trust what you have to say, and keep buying from you.

Pitfall #2- Affiliates Don’t Build a List
One of the most common mistakes new affiliate marketers make is to send traffic directly to their sales page. The very first thing you need to do to build your affiliate marketing business is to build an e-mail marketing list. If you are sending traffic directly to your sales page you'll get the one commission from them but that's it.

Whereas, if you take the time to build an e-mail marketing list you'll be able to make many commissions off one customer. You will build relationships and therefore long-lasting clients that are already targeted for the product(s) you are offering. Once you've created up list you will be able to market over and over for as long as you want to the same customers, as long as they stay subscribed. Start smart and build your e-mail list first before you do anything else.

Avoid these two pitfalls and you will be on your way to being a successful affiliate marketer.