I've noticed that it has become a rising trend to mix affiliate marketing and advertising in hopes of making money online. Many people now simply put up "click here" and "buy this" affiliate links, as well as banners and pop ups, and expect people to buy whatever they see.

Well news flash! While this might make you a couple of bucks, you are throwing away your long term potential, and chances are you will never see big success. That's because simply redirecting as much traffic as possible to an affiliate site is not the true nature of affiliate marketing.

As an affiliate, you are supposed to be someone who is a credible source of information. Someone who can be trusted, and someone who can in turn recommend a product. Without that element of trust, your efforts will not be nearly as successful as they could be.

The first step to building credibility is to give your readers, whether they be subscribers to your mailing list, or visitors to your web site, quality information that they can use. This way, in their eyes, you become an expert in your field, and as a result, someone they can trust.

By recommending products right away, you will undoubtedly sound like a sales person. People want help, they don't want to be sold to. Without giving them any information, you aren't someone they will trust, and nobody wants to just hand over their money to a "stranger".

The only time you should be making product recommendations is after you have established some form of trust with your reader. When making this recommendation, always be truthful and honest, because people will see right through a sales pitch. Outline how a product will help and benefit them, and don't worry about mentioning something you don't like about the product. You will sound even more honest, and this will positively affect your reader's decision.

You really should only promote products that you have really tried and believe in. It only takes one bad recommendation to ruin your credibility. Even if a product has a few flaws, but you still like it, you can always take those flaws and propose solutions or give out missing information to your readers at a later date, which will actually allow you to make more subtle recommendations for the product. They will want to know what they are missing!

To conclude, you can actually take these concepts and build a super profitable product review mini site, where you can use your genuine recommendations as landing pages. Use a review format, and people who are already interested in the product, who may already be ready to buy, but want an extra "unbiased" opinion, can easily find you. With this kind of site, making sales is easier than ever!

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About the author: Tim Johnson has been successfully affiliate marketing since 2006 in many different niches. To learn how to build profitable mini review web sites that can make loads of sales each and every day, read my Confessions of a Lazy Super Affiliate review and get started today.