Mentoring refers to the process of providing guidance to others. That is exactly what you are doing to your downline affiliates, giving a helping hand. A mentor is, in fact, a trusted friend or experienced person. To build a successful affiliate team, you must be able to, “walk the walk and talk the talk.”

Your team members must see you as an experienced person in affiliate marketing. This will do two things: help build trust and allow them to come to you for advice. So, how do you successfully mentor your downline?

Build Relationships

While most of the contact between you and your downline affiliates will be online, make a phone call once in a while. Let them know you are a real person who has their best interest at heart. With today’s technology, telephone calls may be free. Use Skype or another free service for touching base with your affiliate team.

Work with your affiliates to get them started and stay focused. Always send a special welcome email to new recruits. Tell them a bit about yourself. Let them know you’ll share what you know about internet marketing with them and guide them as they learn the ropes.

Keep team members informed of what you are doing. Share marketing information with them on your blog or website. When you find great ways to market, share those ideas with your team. Make them feel special and involved.

Educate Your Downline

Teach your team about the products or services they are marketing. If they do not know the product and believe in it, they cannot sell it well. The more they know, the better their marketing campaigns will be. Article marketing increases their product knowledge as well as their traffic and sales.

Know the compensation plan of the company you represent. It is vital that you are familiar with every aspect of your affiliate program. At any time, you may be required to answer questions from your downline; as well as potential recruits.

Be Supportive

Be there for your downline affiliates. That’s the greatest secret of successful mentors: availability when they are needed. Share in their successes and failures and share yours with them. Nothing motivates like knowing that someone else understands and has been there, too.

Keep learning. You must be an expert to properly motivate and guide your downline in the right direction. This is only possible if you know what you are doing and are knowledgeable about affiliate marketing as well as product itself.

Save team member’s time by sharing all information from your upline sponsor. One of the biggest time-sinks in affiliate marketing is finding useful information to use to promote a product. Don’t make your downline affiliates reinvent the wheel, share what you’ve learned.

Be Inspirational

Ultimately, to be a successful mentor, take the advice of inspirational writer William Arthur Ward, “a great teacher inspires.” Inspire your downline affiliates to do well at what they are doing. After all, you need them as much as they need you.

Mentor is more than just a name. It’s about being actively involved and giving guidance as needed. A successful affiliate mentor is indispensable to downline affiliates. Be their “go to” person when they need help.

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 profitable and easy .

Keeping downline affiliates motivated is a considerable task in the best of times. During an economic crisis this becomes an even bigger task, but it is not an impossible one. The biggest challenge is to keep your downline affiliates motivated and upbeat. Whether it is times of economic austerity or boom, it is your job if you are a mentor to help your team.

Here are a few pointers that will help keep them motivated and do the same for you too:

* Keep Teaching

Affiliates need to keep on learning to succeed and it’s your job as a mentor to keep on teaching them about the program. This is especially important when things are bad. It helps keep them focused. Teaching your affiliates gives them the knowledge they need to succeed.

Success in any field is hinged on learning new ways to do old things better. Affiliate marketing is not new but there are new ways to get prospects and keep them. It is the mentor’s job to help affiliates who learn all they can about the business.

* Keep Them Positive

The glass must be seen as being half full, not half empty. It is the job of the mentor to make this clear. Help your downline find opportunities even when sales are not easy. Sometimes the negatives in life provide an opportunity to look at things differently and find new solutions to old problems.

It’s your job to help your downline affiliates know that there are peaks and valleys in any business model. Explain that it’s the same with affiliate marketing. While you cannot force an affiliate to stick with you, getting them to understand the long-term nature of affiliate marketing is important.

By keeping them upbeat, you also motivate yourself to hold on and work towards success. Remember that the situation must improve and being prepared is the only way to reap success when it does.

* Teach Affiliate Teams How To Cut Costs

During tough economic times, it becomes necessary to look for ways to cut costs. For affiliate marketers, this may mean moving away from certain methods of advertising; like pay-per-click. Alternate methods of finding prospects and selling a product must be found.

* Teach New Ways To Market

Marketing is vital to success in affiliate marketing. In fact, promoting and marketing are the lifeblood of affiliate marketing. Marketing is not all about paid classifieds and pay-per-click. Successful marketing means getting the information out and there are many ways to do this. Affiliates must be reminded of other marketing methods such as link exchanges, article directories and article marketing.

Provide marketing materials to new affiliates until they know how to find them for themselves. Be committed; provide your affiliate team with the tools and resources they need to succeed. Share whatever marketing material you receive from your affiliate program upline.

To be a good mentor, you must remain flexible. You must be able to build trust with your team. Without trust, nothing else you do matters. Even when times are financially trying, affiliate marketing still offers many opportunities for success. It is your job as mentor to help your downline affiliates see the opportunities that exist. Remember that their success is your success.

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 profitable and easy .

Establishing an affiliate downline is the key to future success and profits for any multi-level or affiliate marketing business. The ability to recruit partners who will work hard learn from you is an art form that must be perfected for the success of your business. This process is one of the many factors that make network marketing attractive to entrepreneurs.

Successful entrepreneurs know that what makes people and businesses a lot of money lies in the hands of their affiliate marketing business partners. They have developed ways to help others become successful. In helping others succeed, they ensure their own success.

What To Look For When Recruiting Affiliate Downline

When considering recruits for your affiliate marketing downline, make sure that you identify the right people. Identifying successful candidates ahead of time makes building your downline much easier. Look for people who are already in a network marketing program or are familiar with them. The desire to succeed and motivation are a must.

Don’t waste precious time or effort on people who end up wasting your time. If someone gives you the impression they’re looking for a free ride, interview them again. Make sure they’re in it to succeed, because that’s what you’re going to help them do. In the end, these under-motivated people will only slow you down.

Support Your Affiliate Marketing Downline

If you have a good, solid, supportive upline, they will provide you with the tools needed for recruiting and building your downline. Training sessions are very important to attend. Your upline will discuss the business and commission structures and how to properly recruit a prospect. Pass these values on to your downline.

Upline training gives new recruits all the support they need so that they can explain the opportunity in greater detail to the person they are recruiting. By using the valuable tools provided by your own affiliate sponsor, you increase your recruits and your profits exponentially. When you teach your recruits the same methods, you will see definite results.

Teach your downline how to properly recruit and support their own affiliate marketing business. Instill in them that affiliate marketing is an integrated venture. Show them that in affiliate marketing, your sponsor is the one who taught you the program for success.

Your recruits must learn that following the program leads to success. They must know that they are a part of that successful program and they will succeed. Ensure that they understand the business structure and how it works. Create an educational program that is fun for them so they will make the most of it. The support program you create or share from your own sponsor must be easy to follow.

Show your downline how to correctly review what has been successful in the past; whether for you or your upline. In addition to past successes, let them see your past failures. Encourage them to look at those past initiatives and have them point out exactly why each strategy worked or failed.

Encourage participation in online marketing campaigns like article marketing as some part of their advertising technique. Provide information about a great article distribution service that helped you build consistent website traffic. Show them explicit examples of what worked in the past and encourage them to repeat it. While teaching your recruits to market their business by using proven techniques, let them know its ok to try new things, too.

When you are building your affiliate team, it’s very important that you provide them with as much support as possible. The more success your downline enjoys while building their business, the more success you will enjoy. You are an important resource for your recruits.

When your affiliate team begins to recruit and build their businesses, they will depend heavily upon your guidance. Establishing a relationship with them early is very important. It insures success in both of your companies. After all, your success depends on theirs.

Rebecca Taylor is a coach for the Affiliate Program at Article Marketer. She assists and coaches Article Marketer affiliates and is a regular contributor to this blog. Stop by and learn about our Affiliat Support Team!