Open any newspaper, or turn on a news program, and what are the top stories these days? Most often, it’s concerns about the financial markets and the economy. What are many pundits saying? They’re talking about the lack of adherence to market fundamentals, or proper business fundamentals.

Much of the cause of the economy’s meltdown was financial institutions looking to make a quick buck. They did this through offering toxic derivatives. Some were even unsure about the complex financial instruments they were offering. Stock market guru Warren Buffet warned them that these were financial weapons of mass destruction.

The get rich quick mentality infected corporations. This was true in many parts of the world. Some corporations, typically conservative and risk averse started engaging in get rich quick practices. They are now reaping the fruit of their sowing. In essence, they forgot about fundamentals as applies to markets and their own operations.

As an affiliate mentor, your must ensure your downline doesn’t succumb to this disease. In fact, some of your downline may already have this mentality. They may like your affiliate program model. They may see it as a way to get rich quickly. You must change their way of thinking. You must teach them basic affiliate marketing and business building fundamentals.

The following are five affiliate-marketing fundamentals to teach your downline:

It Takes Time

It’s important to let downline members know that there is a natural time element to growing a business. Ask them to look at businesses in their own neighborhood. They will certainly recognize those establishments that started out small and grew larger.

Show them examples of successful downline members who did the same. Show them how these individuals were patient as they built trust with their target market. When your downline realizes it takes time to grow a business they will learn patience. They will not get antsy after a few slow months of affiliate marketing.

It Takes Effort

Let your downline team know this upfront. The worst thing they can do is sit back and feel revenue will roll in. Show them there’s more to affiliate marketing than putting a banner or text link on a website.

Explain to them that effort in building their business takes hours of actual work. Show them how article writing as part of an article marketing campaign means a time commitment. They need to know it involves effort to write quality articles that build links. The same goes with e-mail campaigns, forum posting, advertisement writing, and such. In fact, show them an example of your weekly schedule as pertains to affiliate marketing work.

It Takes Resources

In the early stages of affiliate marketing, your downline may engage in no cost promoting. That’s fine, and a low-risk way to begin. However, you owe it to your downline to show them other marketing tools that involve expending resources. They need to know that sometimes you have to spend money to make money.

With so many ways to spend money, they will need your advice. You can show them marketing initiatives that can give them the best return for dollars spent. As they see results, they will learn to trust you more as a mentor. You taught them the fundamentals of spending money wisely when it comes to marketing.

It Takes Research and Study

Always be willing to learn is a motto to preach to your downline. The Internet in general and affiliate marketing in particular are constantly in flux. There are always new ways of doing things. Start out by teaching downline newbies the basics of affiliate marketing.

You can pass on to them many good eBooks available. Make yourself available to answer questions concerning affiliate-marketing fundamentals. Next, point them in the direction of other resources that go beyond the fundamentals.

Encourage them to be always researching and studying some of the latest methods for building an online business. Social marketing sites weren’t around a few years ago. Now they are, and who knows what’s next on the horizon. Research and study is to affiliate marketing what sports drills are to athletes.

It Takes Integrity

We saved the best for last. Instill in your downline that integrity must permeate everything they do in affiliate marketing. Once they realize that integrity can cover a host of mistakes and errors, they will embrace it.

This means quality article writing offered to their audience. It means truth in advertising. It means exemplary customer service. It means decent dialog and a respectful attitude when participating in forums. It means offering quality products of course, and standing behind those products. Your downline needs to know that integrity is respect towards their target market.

Instill the above five fundamentals into your downline’s psyche. When you do, you set them up for success, not disappointment. Their adherence to affiliate marketing fundamentals will fundamentally build their business and yours.

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Rebecca Taylor is a coach for the Affiliate Program at Article Marketer. She assists and coaches Article Marketer affiliates. Get what you need to succeed.

Sure, things are tough on the economic front. Anyone trying to sugar coat the realities of the current economic downturn is fooling him or herself. In fact, things may get worse before they get better. Those are the facts, plain and simple. The solutions are not so simple, however.

What does all of this mean for affiliate marketers? It means that when the going gets tough, the, well, you know the rest. Now is the time to work and promote your affiliate business more. There are two reasons for this. First, there is more competition for those customers willing to spend some of their money. Second, you can present yourself as a viable business still operating to these customers.

Wishing for better times won’t bring those better times here any sooner. You will have to work harder and smarter this year at affiliate marketing. With that in mind, here are a few tips for business building in tough economic times:

Get Reviewing

One way to get the word out about your products is to write product reviews. You can employ product reviews on your website. Here you give details, details and more details about a specific affiliate product. These reviews go beyond basic generalities about a product. With these you give your experience with a product, how it performed in different situations.

You can also add snippets of customer testimonials in your reviews. People love to read unbiased user testimonials and how products benefited them. Parts of a case study can also be part of a product review.

Your article writing for your article marketing efforts can be product reviews. These will be non-promotional reviews, which compare a handful of similar products. You objectively present the features of yours and other products. You educate your target market and indirectly promote your product in this type of review.

Get Talking

Spread the word on the street and on the Net concerning your business. That means talking up your affiliate products and affiliate opportunity to people you meet. Without pressuring people or talking about it at inappropriate times let others know what you’re doing businesswise. Someone you meet during the course of your regular day may welcome your affiliate product or affiliate income-earning opportunity. You will never know unless you present it to them.

Participate in social forums. Some affiliate programs find their best conversions come from meeting others on forum sites. Here, you interact with others who already have an interest in topics associated with your affiliate product. It’s up to you to talk to them in a casual way on these topics. You then offer suggestions as to how your product or service may help them. It’s network marketing done efficiently.

Get Leveled

We mean this in a good way. Consider multi-level products. You can sell a prospect on a free or low-cost basic version of your affiliate product. This is especially applicable to software products. Down the road, you can sell your customers on an upgraded version. This is the version with all the extra features and benefits.

You can obtain high levels of sales for the premier version this way. You already have a customer who took advantage of the basic version. You pre-sold them on this higher-level version. You are now asking them to upgrade and enhance their user experience. This is often a better way then trying to sell them the premium edition first.

Get Linking

If you have not yet engaged in link and banner exchanges, this can be your year to try it. Register your site with a central exchange organization. You will then receive HTML code, which you insert into your web pages. You display banners and text links from other sites. You gain credit for displaying these links. Consequently, other sites must display your text links and banners. Exchanging links to promote traffic is mutually beneficial to all who are part of the exchange.

Don’t forget to engage in article writing and article marketing. It still is an efficient way to get your links out onto the World Wide Web. You build credibility as an affiliate marketer and build trust with your niche market through article marketing.

Watch Your Back

Again, we mean this in a good way. Here, you want to engage in back selling. First, market a core product or set of products. Next, begin regular communications with your clientele who purchased these products. Let them know other complementary products, accessories or services related to your core offerings. This is a great way to grow affiliate product sales. If they like your core products, they may well find your back-sell products equally useful.

Don’t let tougher economic times stop you from promoting your business. Use the many tools available to you to promote your affiliate business this year. Yes, the tough get going, and they’re tough to stop as they watch their sales grow.

Jim Slader manages the affiliate program at Article Marketer, the largest article distribution service on the Internet. Earn commissions on a product that virtually sells it; become an Article Marketer Affiliate today. Join the winning team: it’s quick and easy .