In the last post, I talked about how to drive traffic to your affiliate programs, touching some important points such advertising and building links. Promoting an affiliate programs is different than driving traffic to them, and it’s something misunderstood by many people in Internet.

Some weeks ago, I signed up to Market Leverage and promoted it in my blog by writing a little review about that program. What you can find there, in the review’s post, is a reflection of how to promote your affiliate programs.

If you want to be recognized and create an authority on Internet, you need to Be Honest with your readers. Many people lie in the blogosphere, even more when they are promoting a service or product. They do that with the purpose to convince the people who read their blogs about something that is not true. By catching them as referrals, they will earn money from their sales and from each activity the referrals make in the affiliate network.

Now, I will tell you why you SHOULD NOT to do that. At the first instance, you will earn more money with all those deceived referrals, the problem isn’t that, who don’t like to earn money? The problem starts when you are going to promote another affiliate program, in the future. What do you think will happen with all those people who signed up under your link in the past? Obviously, if they were deceived they will not trust in you anymore. Surely, they will sign up to the program referred by you, but through another blogger who inspire them more trust.

To be successful promoting an affiliate program you need to be transparent, telling to the people what they will find in the program, the most important features of the program, how much they will earn… All those kind of things, and if there is a catch, tell them. For example, many people get angry when they expect something for free and suddenly they need to pay a quote to receive the information.

By being honest at time of promoting an affiliate program could give you more chances to multiply your earnings in a future. Then, when you suggest to your readers to sign up to an affiliate program, surely they will do it under your name and this way, you will get many commissions from them.