One of the biggest if not the leading problem for internet marketers is keeping your affiliates from quitting. The time and effort that has been put forth to get your affiliates can seem like a waste of time if soon after joining your program they either opt-out or become inactive. Unless you are determined to succeed you may find yourself doing the same. Before we can hope to keep our affiliates active and motivated we must determine why they give up.

This article will not go into what motivates a person to get involved in internet marketing. Rather we will examine what happens after someone gets involved in marketing.

So you much like myself recruit several new affiliates each day. Some seem eager while others you never here from. You focus your attention on the eager ones hoping they will become a super affiliate. Your in constant contact each day and then all of a sudden you never here from them again. You may be asking yourself, "What Happened!! Did I do something wrong? Maybe I failed to support my affiliate. What could I have done better?" The answer is nothing. That is providing you have been supporting your affiliates.

So what did happen?

Well, if the affiliate never had a desire to succeed but possibly just curious about internet marketing there is nothing you can do. I still believe that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. If this is the case no matter what you say will fall upon deaf ears. But if they do desire to succeed they may only need a little motivation or a way to look at the business that will keep them going.

Here are some things that may make them think twice before fading away:

1. Ask them where they will be 5 years from now if they quit. And then tell them where they could be in 5 years if they continue their affiliate business. Remind them that it takes little time out of their day to market. As little as an hour. Marketing is not an inconvience. You have to do something in that hour why not dedicate it to their business. Even if it takes 5 years to get to their goals they will get there. But if they quit they will never succeed. And then 5 years from now they may look back and remark to themselves, "Had I continued with my business my life would be different now." Encourage them to continue by looking to the future rather then the short term. The future may be a long way off but that time will allow them to see their success and encourages them each day. If they live for the day and hope to acheive their success in that day they will be discouraged when the day is done and have not obtained their goal. They will give up feeling they have failed.

2. Help them to see that the business is fun and each thing they do brings them closer to their goals. An article entitled (Setting Goals for Yourself) could help you set goals for your affiliates. Tell them to focus on the marketing aspect of their business rather than the money-making aspect. This will allow them to come up with creative ways to market which makes it more enjoyable. I like what many people happy in their work say. "If you love what you do, you never work another day in your life."

3. Convey the message that if even just one person has acomplished something then so can everybody else. Most all of us have the same abilities. Some have it a little easier than others, but nonetheless someone in life has had to overcome the same obstacles that they may face. See my motivational article entitled, (It's Up To You!). Give them this example. Let them contemplate their current job. If they have just filled a postion were they not shown how to do the job? And by following the instruction given to them did they not end up doing the job correctly. Why? Because they followed the instruction of someone who has been successfully doing the job. The same holds true for internet marketing or any business. Follow in the path of those who have been successful and they will also find success.

4. If they express to you that they want to try something else tell them this. If you are truly involved in a good program as I am tell them that basicly all marketing businesses have a common theme. You market a product at the same time try to recruit affiliates. That old saying that the grass is not always greener on the other side. It's true. Make them aware that jumping from one program to another first of all does not give them the time to properly analize the potential of the program, and second just as they begin to lay a solid foundation they quit and all their effort is basicly wasted. It's kind of like playing a slot machine. You have spent hours dropping quarters into one finally giving up in frustration. Then someone comes up behind you drops a quarter in and wins the jackpot. Tell them if they hold on a little longer all there efforts will pay off.

There are probably others that you can come up with, but for the most part these will get your sub-affiliates thinking. But of course there are no guarantees. All you can hope to do is try and keep them motivated, guide them along, and feed them some words of wisdom now and then. But their success is up to them.