People sometimes get confused between internet marketing and affiliate marketing. They are not the same thing. You want to make sure you don't make your affiliate business internet marketing. It is true that when you work as an affiliate, you do market on the internet, but you need to market in a specific way which is not the same as internet marketing.

It is true, though, that a good internet marketer has no difficulty in becoming a good affiliate marketer and vice versa. When you operate as an internet marketer, you set up a website and market it directly to the public. You will also builds a list of customers and your own products.

You are not marketing your own products

With affiliate marketing, you are not marketing your own products, and you need a website only to send people to the merchant's site. But you need to send the surfer in the right frame of mind. These days you must have a website, whereas until recently it was possible to get away without one. However, that website can be very simple and needs no more than ten pages. Five pages will do if they are all focused on a small niche.

You can use various techniques to drive traffic to your website, from Google Adwords, articles, posting on forums, building a list and so on. You just want to find people who are interested in the type of product you are marketing, or better still are actually looking to buy the product or service.

Do not sell the product on your site

So far so good, and up to this point there is no real difference between your affiliate business and internet marketing. This is where you are on a different tack as an affiliate. You do NOT want to try to sell the product on your site, but the internet marketer does. If you try the hard-sell approach, you will turn off some surfers. Others will be all psyched up on your site, and will not want to read the sales letter on the merchant's site. So they are likely to click away, which is the last thing they want. You want to pre-sell the product, which is more a case of pre-qualifying the visitor.

Now, if you are marketing a solution to an urgent problem, like an anti-virus tool, you would just provide a link directly to the merchant. The chances are they are desperate and need a solution now!

On the other hand, if it is a product like a dog training manual or car accessories, you just want them to go to the merchant's site thinking that want to buy it, but not totally convinced. Leave the selling to the merchant. This is the big difference between an affiliate business and internet marketing. Remember: Pre-sell, don't sell.