Mistakes happen in business. They happen in every business, period. While it is not terribly difficult to create a high quality web site and begin working in the industry of affiliate marketing, or finding the best opportunities to make a substantial amount of money, it is easy to make any number of affiliate marketing mistakes if you are not careful. In situations such as these, it is always better to view each mistake as a learning opportunity. By learning from each mistake you make, not only will you be less inclined to make it again, it also gives you the opportunity to make your business better. However, there are some things you can do and watch out for that will keep you from making some common mistakes in the first place. You simply have to be willing to learn, to do a little research and, in some cases, to change some aspects of your business style.

Probably the most common mistake people in this industry make is believing that they are guaranteed to make a lot of money simply by finding the highest paying affiliates. They think that you can do this, drive up the amount of traffic that runs to the affiliate site, sit back, and watch the money roll in without doing anything else. You do not have to be an expert marketer to see that such a viewpoint is hopelessly naive. You do not have to be interested in business at all to see that.

Although you will naturally want to go with a high paying affiliate, you have to understand that it should not be your only criterion. It should not even be the most important one. Instead, you want to go with a credible, reputable affiliate. Quality over quantity is generally a better way to go. It is definitely the best way to go in this industry. Now, having made that point, here is a look at the three most common affiliate marketing mistakes -- and what you can do to stay away from them.

Firstly, as mentioned, you want to go with someone who is responsible, respectable, reliable, and reputable. Choose a high quality seller; make sure that your affiliate is legit and that their sales are proven. If you spend a lot of time sending traffic over to some site which does not make good on selling, then you are out of time and money. Basically, you want to find an affiliate who has a high rate of conversion -- that is, they are proven to convert traffic and sales into money.

Secondly, you want to go with an affiliate who protects their partners. This is a partnership, after all; you need to both be able to trust each other. If your affiliate does not look like it is thinking about your best interests, then you need to go with someone else. It is thus also better to go with an affiliate which only offers a single payment option. This makes it easier to get paid for referring.

Last but not least, stay away from affiliates which offer email courses. You do not want to be in a partnership with anyone who thinks getting a bunch of email addresses is more important than anything else.