What are your thoughts on affiliate marketing? Do you view everything you can on the subject and try to improve upon your own marketing plan? There are numerous resources available such as magazines, videos, books, shows, etc. So where do you begin with your own plan? Try going through these tips to find your starting point.

Choose a topic you already know and understand when beginning an affiliate marketing site. While the site may not be as lucrative as those on other topics, beginning with a familiar topic allows you to learn more about affiliate marketing while growing your site around a subject you already have an interest in.

If you are thinking of adding affiliate marketing to your site, do some comparison shopping. Not all programs are created equal, and many you have to find yourself. Check with your favorite vendors and see if they have a program you can sign up for. Loving the product you are selling is the key to making others want it to.

Always make sure to check on a company's conversion numbers before you decide to work as an affiliate for them. Many new marketers are sold on bright and colorful websites and fail to check the sales conversion numbers. If the company is not turning a lot of visitors into customers, this means no commissions for you.

One of the biggest things in affiliate marketing is to know your audience. You must know why they are coming to your site and what they expect to find. What product or service are you offering that they are most interested in. What is catching them and making them come back to your site?

In affiliate marketing, just as in other things in life, there is no substitute for hands-on experience. Therefore, I recommend strongly that you try the product yourself. If you cannot (not everyone is in a position to touch a Leica M9 or a Ferrari), then research the item. Read reviews. Even better, ask end users -- preferably those who have actually bought the product -- about their experience. User forums are extremely helpful. Finally, ask yourself, "Would I be happy with this?"

You think you have a great site with great advertisers but your site traffic has been slowing down. You must always have fresh content by making sure there is something new at least once or twice a weak if not every day. Providing new and interesting articles and stories will keep the search engines leading people your way.

To be paid fairly, check if the affiliate marketing program you joined keeps their statistics up to date. Good statistics should tell you how many people visited the website, how many of them bought something and how many of these sales you are responsible for. If the numbers do not seem right, perhaps the program is hiding information from you.

Use auto-tracking software whenever possible. There is software out there that can download affiliate sales data and adjust the frequency at which an ad is shown in a rotation relative to its profitability. If an ad is consistently performing poorly, the software will alert you so you can dump it and put something potentially more profitable in its place.

Think about branching out once you build up some profile as an affiliate. Taking the next big step in business is important for anyone looking to make a career out of working online. If you build up a reputable brand as an affiliate, you should think about pushing your own products to keep 100% of the profit.

Now that you have an idea on where to start crafting your own affiliate marketing plan, are you ready to start experimenting? Are you ready to apply what you read to your business? Can you start better promoting your business using affiliates? If you can, then great! If not, make sure to go back through the tips again.