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Affiliate Mentoring Isn't Magic: It's Work

Nothing comes easy in life, or in business. While we all want the proverbial magic formula to bring dollars flowing our way with little effort expended. It's not a realistic way of looking at things. This holds true for affiliate marketing as well. If you want to succeed in the affiliate business, devote time and energy to mentor those in your downline. When you do, you increase the chances to earn a steady income for the long haul.

Your downline is your business working for you when you are not working. It's like owning a retail shop and getting away for a two-week vacation. Your staff members will do the necessary work while you're not there to ensure your business still operates properly and brings revenue in. It's the same with your downline in Internet marketing.

When you're not in front of your PC writing articles, reports, reviews, link building, or participating in online forums, your downline may be doing those things and other affiliate marketing activities. They are driving your income even when you're not working at your affiliate business. The key is to be having them doing all these things properly. They can only do so if you mentor them properly.

Quality mentoring isn't waving a magic wand and hoping your downline "gets to it". Quality mentoring is picking up the phone and having a "chat meeting" with a member, someone you have personally recruited. It's having a vide-conferencing meeting or conference call with a downline team to pass on information about affiliate product updates.

Quality mentoring is developing an affiliate marketing strategy and passing on the details of that strategy to every member of your downline. It is then encouraging feedback from your downline on aspects of the marketing program. Quality mentoring is taking the time to explain processes and procedures for building an Internet affiliate business step-by-step.

Think of when you started out in affiliate marketing. You learned a little here, a little there, on your own as you went along. You probably learned from other experienced affiliate marketers, or from an affiliate manager above you. They told you how to promote your products, how to drive traffic to your website through article marketing, through link building and the like. Now do the same for people placed under you, or recruited personally by you.

Just because an affiliate parent places people in your downline doesn't mean they're all Internet marketing experts going gung-ho to build a business. More often than not, they're neophytes just breaking into the business themselves. They see the potential in affiliate marketing but have no idea how to approach marketing their products. They are where you were the first day you entered the affiliate marketing world.

You, a concerned mentor, build both downline and your businesses quicker by passing your knowledge and skill set onto them. Explain article writing and get their article marketing campaign under way. Tell them about guerilla and viral marketing methods. Show them how to perform link building to drive traffic to their website. Teach them to list their sites in major directories. Teach them about keyword bidding and a host of other things.

Everything you teach them helps their business, helps yours. That's the reason mentoring is important for your affiliate marketing business. It's also important for your downline because it motivates them and keeps them from being discouraged when dollars don't pour in the first few months they're up and running.

Take the time to mentor your downline. While you're at it, don't be afraid to stay on top of things by tapping the resources of your own mentor or affiliate program manager. You can always learn something new. Continue to learn from those who have mentored you in the past by keeping in touch with them. Pass new knowledge to your own downline. Be that mentor who puts in the time and effort that brings rewards for your downline, and ultimately you too. The profitable results may seem magic, but they came through your hard work.

About the Author

Jim Slader manages the affiliate program at Article Marketer, the largest article distribution service on the Internet. Earn commissions on a product that virtually sells it; become an Article Marketer Affiliate today. Join the winning team: it's quick and easy .

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