nativenewyorker - 5:03 am on Jun 25, 2004 (gmt 0)

Here are a few additional points to add to Gopi's excellent suggestions.

The Baker's Dozen from Native New Yorker are:

1. Have a viable business plan with clear cut and reachable goals that you want to acheive within a certain timeframe. ie. visitors, clicks, conversions, EPC, CPM, costs, gross income, net income, etc...
   
2. Evaluate risk and reward as part of your plan. Do not take large risks for potentially small gains. Risk includes the time and effort you put into something in addition to the monetary aspect.
   
3. Put your money links at the top of your page so that it is above the fold (area that your visitor will see without scrolling). Keep in mind that Internet surfers have very short attention spans.
   
4. Consider the use of text links which often outperform banners.
   
5. Avoid building pages with too much code and graphics that will take too long to load.
   
6. Avoid fancy or tiny fonts that are difficult to read and will hinder your sale.
   
7. Stick with honest merchants that have a strict policy against predatory software that overwrite affiliate cookies.
   
8. Check your affiliate links to make sure they work. If you have coding errors in your affiliate links, all your effort to bring that customer to your site will be in vain, as your commission will be NOTHING.
   
9. Check your links to make sure they have your affiliate ID. Do not assume that the ID embedded in a merchant email is correct. There are countless examples of merchants that have sent out emails with new banners and links, only to later apologize for sending out test affiliate IDs or even the affiliate IDs of your competitors.
   
10. Learn from the experiences and mistakes of others. Be honest with yourself when you make a mistake.
    
11. Be diversified so that the constantly changing Internet landscape does not make you a dinosaur overnight. Apply it to all aspects of your business. ie. industries, product niches, varying demographics, SERPs, PPC, black / white hat SEO, etc...
    
12. Be flexible and ready to adapt to changes with your business.
    
13. Always have a backup plan.