There are countless affiliate programs out there, all of which claim to be the best. Many of them try to give you the impression that all you have to do is use their banners and links then wait for your bank account to grow. Although this scenario can be the case, this type of situation normally applies to large sites with a lot of web traffic.

Selecting banners

With most affiliate programs, you are offered a variety of banners to plant on your website, but very few of them will be effective. The problems with most banners are their sizes. If you choose a banner that has a large file size, it will take a long time to load on the page. Therefore, it's recommended that you use banners no more than 15kb in size.

When you select any type of visual advertising, you should try and keep the overall appearance of your website in mind. Even though graphical ads are meant to stand out and catch people's eye, they shouldn't be to the point where they detract from the rest of the page.

Pop-unders and -ups

Many companies will now give their affiliates the decision of using pop-up or pop-under ads. According to most experts, pop-ups aren't the way to go. They can easily annoy visitors and are typically closed before they even have the chance to load. You should instead opt for pop-unders and those types that display only once per visit.

Text link advertisments

One of the most effective means of advertising is the use of text link ads. They are light on bandwidth, don't take up a lot of space, and they can easily be implemented into most types of page layouts. Good text links offer some information as to why your visitor should explore your offers.

Advertising via email

The direct promotion through email has really gained popularity over the last several years, although it has also brought tons of spam with it. If you choose to use email as a method of advertising your products, you should stand behind what you sell and make yourself available to answer any questions.

Waiting for Results

If you are confident that your site can generate great sales for certain companies, you should contact them to negotiate an arrangement. If they don't seem to excited to begin with, you should remain patient as companies are approached every day with affiliates looking to make better deals.

The sad fact remains that most affiliates can't deliver what they promise, and companies are aware of it.

You should always remember that most forms of advertising will take time. No matter what methods of advertising you plan to use, allow it some time before you make any type of decision. Although something may not happen overnight -- it very well could down the road.