Affiliate Marketing provides a perfect opportunity for people to begin their own online business. One of the many draws to affiliate marketing is the fact that you do not have to possess the ability to produce your own products. As an affiliate marketer you have the ability to promote and advertise products on behalf of different merchants. This is a very appealing aspect to many new online entrepreneurs. As an affiliate marketer you do not have to worry about maintaining, updating, or delivering products to your customers. In other words, an affiliate does not need to maintain physical ownership or inventory of the products in order to promote them.

Yet, almost all affiliate marketing experts advise that as an affiliate you should own the products in order to successfully promote the product. Do not take this to mean that you need to become involved in the manufacturing process. What it does mean is that, as the affiliate for a product or service, you must believe in the benefits that can be obtained from using the product or service. How do you get this belief? This belief is most often manifested in the owning of the product. In other words, a good affiliate marketer will use the products and services that he is promoting and advertising.

In todays affiliate marketing environment, I see more affiliates with the "Baskin-Robbins" mentality. They promote the flavor of the month if you will. They are only interested in promoting products that are hyped to be the best-selling ones for the month. These types of affiliate marketers are very trendy and will switch products and promotions at the drop of a hat. I ask you, why promote a product just because it is wildly popular if the product or service does not appeal to you? If it doesn't appeal to you, chances are it isn't going to appeal to your customers either. Never entertain the idea of signing-up for affiliate programs or promoting affiliate products that do not fit with your overall affiliate marketing strategy. If you choose to promote every single so called "hot product" you will only end up spending time, money, and effort on many products and affiliate programs that will not provide you with good financial returns in the long run.

However, if the popular "product of the month" is a one which appeals to you, it fits with your affiliate marketing niche, and your research tells you that it has a reasonable chance to succeed within your market then, by all means, sign-up for that affiliate program. Affiliate marketers need to make sure (if it is entirely possible) that you can and will utilize such a product. There are two really major reasons for owning the product being promoted. Both reasons seem intangible on the surface, but they are key factors towards the success of any affiliate marketing promotion you undertake.

The first major reason why an affiliate marketer should own the product is authenticity. Since the affiliate owns the product, he or she has a personal experience with it. With this personal experience, you can share more valuable information with your prospects when pre-selling the product or service on his website or in email campaigns. You will also be able to share things that cannot be found in standard affiliate ads provided by the merchant. There are many benefits and features to products that can only be known by someone who owns and has personally used the products they are promoting.

The second major reason why the affiliate should own the product they are promoting is credibility. The affiliate knows the product in the way that the target client will know the product. This places the affiliate in the position of "expert." As an expert you can authoritatively better answer questions that the clients may ask about the product or service. If the affiliate does not own the product, he cannot honestly and immediately answer the questions of the clients. Being unable to answer truthfully and credibly leads to losing the client.

If you want to see your affiliate commissions increase and your stature as an expert in your field increase. I encourage all affiliate marketers to develop an "own it, before you promote it mentality."

David Cooper is the editor of the Affiliate Marketing Articles Newsletter. David specializes in helping affiliate marketers understand the importance of owning and using the products and services they are promoting. Subscribe to his FREE newsletter at: http://www.affiliatemarketingarticles.com/