Many people with the best intentions fail at affiliate marketing because they fail to recognize some common mistakes in their strategy. The worst part is that most of these key mistakes occur long before the affiliate page is written and the links inserted. Here are 5 major mistakes to avoid in your affiliate marketing ventures.

1. Picking the wrong market
To be a successful affiliate you need to pick the right market. Too many people fall into the trap of finding a great product then trying to find a market. Really you have to find a market, then give that market what they want (a product!). Do the right research to find a good market. Use the tools like those at yahoo search marketing to see which markets are saturated and which have room for new products. Find out the interest in that market by how many people are searching for its major keywords each month. Keep in mind the bigger the market the harder it is to get traffic and the more expensive also. Not only that, the more time you will have to spend maintaining your pages to keep your traffic flowing.

2. Don't Sell... PRESELL!
This one is a biggie. Too many affiliates make the mistake of putting too much of a sales pitch on their page... Big mistake! Here's what happens: Prospect reads your sales pitch... they are enthralled, they find your click here link and click on through to the merchant page. The merchant (as they have to) hits the propect with ANOTHER sales pitch that may or not be better or different to the one the affiliate has written and they have just read. They feel frustrated and insulted that they have been made to read the same information twice and what's worse, they start to feel as though they are being pressured into purchasing the product... next... yep you guessed it they leave! Affililate commission out the window. Don't, whatever you do make this mistake. If you do i can say with confdence that you will be lucky to make a single affiliate sale.

3. No content.
Opposite to mistake number 2, many affiliates become so enthralled with the concept of being able to make money just with a link that they over look the need for quality content and good information. I have seen affiliate pages with a bunch of picture and text links but no content. It just looks blatantly like a whole bunch of advertisements which if you've ever noticed? people tend to do everything in their power to avoid! Your page needs to give the prospect an opportunity to gain your trust and promote the merchants product in the right way, the effective way. Content is essential and there are many theories on the most appropriate content for affiliate pages. Whatever you do, just avoid having no content!