If you’re just starting out as an affiliate, it can be hard to know what you need to do to be successful. Just as importantly, there are a number of things you shouldn’t do as well! This guide will talk about both, so you can avoid many of the mistakes that make life harder for many beginners.

Do:

• Promote high-quality products that you personally find interesting and would consider purchasing. Believing in the value of a product will make you better at promoting it, both because your promotional efforts will be more believable, and because you’ll have a better understanding of what draws potential customers to that product in the first place. Try promoting products you feel passionate about, instead of only promoting products that are popular with everyone else.
• Test your referral link and campaigns regularly to ensure they’re working properly.
• Spend time researching various promotional techniques before you get started. A good resource if you’re just starting out is our Succeeding as an Affiliate article, and searching the Internet for specifics on each promotional technique should get you a great deal of good information for free.
• Be flexible about your techniques, and be willing to make changes if something isn’t working. Different techniques work for different types of products, so what worked for you in the past may not work in the future. The business of affiliate marketing changes very quickly, so you always need to be ready to adjust to market trends, new products, and other unforeseen circumstances.
• Store copies of your referral link in a file on your computer. It’s also a good idea to include a note about which product the referral link corresponds to, and any additional details you want to remember about the product. GetValue doesn’t store copies of referral links you’ve created, so if you want to have easy access to them for future promotions, you’ll need to store them yourself.
• Choose an inoffensive account nickname. While your nickname doesn’t have to be perfect (see the Don’t below), it will be visible to customers, so it’s a good idea to make it something that won’t offend anyone or make them decide not to purchase through you.
• Follow the terms and conditions of any sites you’re using. If you promote a product on Facebook, Pinterest, Craigslist, or any other site, you must follow their terms and conditions as well as ours. We terminate accounts who violate the terms and conditions of other sites to protect our business with those sites.

Don’t:

• Don’t spam. There are a number of reasons not to spam other people with affiliate promotions. GetValue takes complaints of spamming very seriously, and we will suspend or terminate accounts if we determine that they are associated with spamming. Additionally, many websites, social networks, forums, blogs, and Internet Service Providers take reporting of spamming seriously, so you can quickly find yourself banned from popular places to promote products if your promotions are considered to be spam and are reported by others.
• Don’t use “negative” advertising campaigns. While some affiliates think it’s a good idea to create ads like “Is Product X a scam?” and then link to the product, we strongly recommend that you not use this method of advertising. Many vendors are opposed to people associating their product with being a scam, and can request that GetValue ban particular affiliates from promoting their product if they catch them doing this. This means that your advertising efforts go to waste and you won’t be able to promote that vendor’s product in the future. In addition, it makes GetValue products in general look bad, and can make customers hesitant to buy the product since you’ve introduced doubt in their mind. It’s better to highlight the benefits of a product right off the bat, instead of introducing fear about a product and then trying to sell a customer on the product anyway.
• Don’t feel that you must purchase the product you want to promote. You’re never required to purchase a product to be able to promote it, though sometimes owning and using the product can lead to new ideas on how to promote the product.
• Don’t expect to quickly generate a lot of traffic using free promotional techniques. While free promotional methods such as search engine optimization (SEO) and social media can eventually lead to lots of traffic, beginner affiliates will likely not drive much traffic from these methods until they’ve had time to build up their efforts, reputation, and search engine rankings.
• Don’t mask or store your referral link in a frame. For your referral link to be properly tracked, they must not be stored in a frame. If your domain is masked, your referral link will be stored in this manner, and therefore will be unreliable.
• Don’t use your password as a Tracking ID. If you choose to include a Tracking ID on your re, it is visible to anyone who clicks your referral link, as is your account nickname. Having both of these pieces of information visible to others may invite unauthorized access to your account.
• Don’t be overly concerned with picking a “perfect” GetValue nickname. Your advertising efforts are what really count, not the nickname you use.