When it comes to advertising and affiliate commissions, finding out what works and what doesn't work can sometimes be very surprising.

In a recent correspondence with Steve Little of Adminder, Steve touched on a subject that really got me thinking. He was wondering why it is sometimes possible for an affiliate with a very small customer base to earn 5 times more in Affiliate Commissions than someone with a high traffic web site and a large optin email list.

The conclusion he came to, and I agree, is that it's not always the number of people who see your ads that dictates the amount you earn in affiliate commissions... it's the manner in which you present your ads.

Think about that for a moment.

The fact is, people are sick of blatant ads and tend to "tune them out". When was the last time you clicked on a banner ad or purchased a product from a complete stranger?

If you're like me, you are probably a bit wary when it comes to purchasing products on the internet, especially when many of them are hyped so much they sound too good to be true. Many of these products could actually be very useful, but we don't tend to give them a second look simply because of the manner in which they are presented.

Advertising methods have changed drastically over the past several years. Simply placing a few banners on a web page or sending out "cookie cutter" emails to a list of people that don't know you just doesn't cut it anymore. If it were that easy, we'd all be millionaires.

People tend to buy products from companies and individuals that they know and trust, so it is extremely important to build a good relationship with your site visitors, especially those that decide to join your mailing list or subscribe to your newsletter or ezine.

You must also know your product before attempting to introduce it to your list of subscribers. This is especially important for affiliate marketers who sell products for other merchants on a commission basis. Writing a recommendation for a product in your own words will do wonders to "pre sell" the product which will in turn result in more affiliate commissions... guaranteed! The same principle applies to your web site. Writing a paragraph or two outlining the benefits of a product you are promoting will generate a lot more interest and get a lot more clicks than just displaying a banner.

Now I'm not suggesting that all web sites should be completely free of images. I have several on my own site and visitors do click on them, but for the most part, text links have always worked better for me.

The advantage to using text ads is that you can tweak and fine tune them so that they blend in with the content of your page. Your site visitors will feel more comfortable clicking on your links if they don't look like blatant ads.

Experiment with different versions of your text ads. Experience has proven that sometimes changing just one word in an ad can result in a significant increase in affiliate commissions.

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