There seem to be numerous methods that affiliate marketers use to earn their commissions these days. Adding affiliate links to websites, emails, instant messengers, articles, e-books, pay-per-click ads, banners, and any other form of media are all popular affiliate marketing strategies. Success comes to them when people click those links, get tracked by a cookie uploaded to their computer and then make a purchase from the affiliate program’s website. Then the affiliate gets a check in the mail for all the commissions earned.

Recently though, there have been some new affiliate marketing tactics that are creating a bit of a stir in the affiliate marketing communities. It seems that an elite group of marketers are using some questionable methods to increase their commissions that have been labeled as “black hat” affiliate marketing tactics. So who are these elite, and what are their black hat tactics?

Well, today is Anik Singal's Affiliate Manager 1st Edition Launch. This affiliate manager course has been buzzing over the month as many of the top internet marketers have been preparing their sales letters, sending messages to their lists, and promoting the course in every way they can.

Anik has done a good job setting up the launch with the help of Mike Merz. Not only are they releasing a top quality product, but they are also offering incredible incentives to their Joint Venture partners involved in the launch. Thousands of dollars worth of prizes are being offered to the top Joint Venture affiliates.

There are many benefits to gain by promoting yourself to an affiliate manager position. If you’re already an affiliate marketer, you already know what tasks to do in order to make affiliate sales. The problem here is that you only have so much time every day to do those tasks. As an affiliate manager, you can leverage your efforts by helping recruit, support, and assist a whole army of affiliates to do those tasks for you. That means less work as an affiliate manager, and more profits leveraged from all the affiliates you manage.

If you have a product or service of your own, you can start your own affiliate program and promote yourself to affiliate manager. Now you may be thinking “That sounds good, but I don’t have a product or service of my own”. Well, even if you don’t have your own product or service, you can still become an affiliate manager, because many online businesses are now realizing how much more they can earn from their affiliate programs when they hire a qualified affiliate manager to run it for them. Some marketers are paying their affiliate managers as much as $3000-$5000 per month, plus a percentage between 2.5%-25% of gross affiliate sales they generate.

The Affiliate Manager 1st Edition course is looking hot folks. We just got a glimpse of the first picture of the course today, and this picture does not even include all of the bonuses!

Check out the Affiliate Manager Blog to see the course picture! There's also a free video to view on How to Recruit Your First Affiliates.

That course looks incredibly comprehensive, and judging by Anik Singal's experience, I'm sure it will be.

I'm still waiting to receive a preview copy before it's released, so that I can give you my informed opinion of what to expect from it. As soon as I get a chance to go through it, I'll let you all know what I think.

What are some key things to look for in a good affiliate program?

There are certainly some key things I look for in a good affiliate program. I'll list them below, and then go through each in more detail.

- Good Product in high demand or niche market
- Long-term tracking with cookies and/or IP addresses
- High commissions
- Good product marketing materials
- Good Affiliate Program support
- 2 tier systems (preferred)

-=Good Product in high demand or niche market=-

You always want to make sure you're marketing a high quality product that is useful to people. This is the number one thing, because if you market bad products, it may ruin your reputation, and you won't make money in the long term. So make sure you're marketing a good product. Also make sure it's something that is in high demand that people want. If it's a niche market, then make sure that it's something unique that the market will want to buy.

I have only been doing affiliate marketing now for just 2 years, but I am certainly impressed with it's ease of use, and high commission payouts. I started quite a few years ago in Multi Level Marketing (MLM), but realized that I didn't like that system so much, because I had to continue using the products of the company on a regular basis. When I discovered affiliate Marketing, I realized that it's a system that works better for me. 2 tiers is generally the average for an affiliate marketing program, and affiliate programs don't even require you to have to purchase the product.

One of the key advantages I also saw with affiliate marketing programs, is that when you've sold a lot of the products and sales start to dwindle, you can just move onto another complimentary product and sell it to the same customers. With the MLM programs I was in, they had rules against marketing other companies products to your downline in their program. Affiliate marketing to me, seems overall, like a much better and easier system. You don't have to be too attached to any one program. You can join multiple affiliate programs for the same products even, and then review them all for your customers, allowing them to decide who's product to choose based on your recommendations.

Well, the Affiliate Super Network community has been created and I look forward to seeing it grow and flourish. I know there are many other places on the internet for affiliate marketers to connect and share, but my goal is to make this the best site, with the largest affiliate marketing community, and offer many freebies and opportunities for anyone who is a part of this community.

So be it, and it is so,

Peace & Prosperity,

Jambhala