One of the biggest mistakes affiliate marketers make is that they only concentrate on building a short-term business where they just make small sales, one sale at a time. If they stop running their ads their business would cease to exist! The following strategy will allow any affiliate to build a long-term business and make repeat sales to the same customer over and over again. Using this strategy will persuade potential customers that you are an expert in your field and making money will become all the easier!

It is a well known fact that 95% of would-be Internet marketers never make a red cent or make a few sales then quit, believing that the game is too complicated, difficult or the market is saturated. However, there is a way that guarantees success, you have probably heard the term the money is in the list it's true! Building an opt-in list is the blue print to success; all the famous marketers have huge opt-in lists.

There is no doubt about it selling products to customers costs money but by having an opt-in list you're building a customer base instead of just single sales! You can sell to the same customer over and over again without having any more advertising costs. Through your newsletter or Ezine you build relationships and trust with your readers that encourages them to be loyal in doing business with you through your affiliate links!

So that said, how do you build a list? Well, the easiest way I have found so far is to start referring all my traffic that I pay for to an opt-in page. After the person opts-in, have them land on a thank you page where you can pre-sell them for the affiliate product. You are probably already building traffic to your site but instead of sending that traffic directly to your affiliate link, send it to a page that allows the person to opt-in.

The next most popular question is how the opt-in page should look. Your page MUST be small, concise and to the point. This means that you should NOT have a long sales letter page to get them to opt-in. Your entire opt-in page should fit on to screen with NO scroll down bar. Have a strong, persuasive headline, 5-6 bulleted benefits and then an opt-in box. You'll be surprised at how well this works and how spectacular the results can be.

Here are 5 techniques that will dramatically add active prospects to your list.

1. Submit articles around the web regarding your niche and have your biography link go to an opt-in page. You'll be amazed at how well this technique works in building a list.

2. Pay per click is the easiest way to immediately begin getting traffic. Send all of your paid traffic directly to your opt-in page, then have the person land on a page that pre-sells the product they were looking for. Make sure to test this, sometimes your conversions on the front-end can fall, but they will increase over time.

3. I have found Ezine ads are a great way to quickly and cost effectively boost my list. Write an ad promising a "free membership or information" and send the traffic to an opt-in page.

4. Viral marketing takes some time to kick in but can be extremely effective! Other affiliates will spread your message across the Internet and display the links to your opt-in page.

5. Over the longer term use linking strategy this option is a bit more work, so only use it once you have tested and know that you have a winner. Start trading links with related websites and you will see a great boost in traffic.

If you dont see immediate results dont give up, persevere and you will make it, but only if you dont quit! Understand that you should be building a long-term affiliate business with related residual income streams and not just something that makes you a few dollars per sale. If for any reason you stop advertising, you want to be in position to still have a solid business with a good income.