When you began in affiliate marketing, you may have signed up with a program and stuck one of their banners on your website. You then waited for that flood of cash flow to pour in on a regular basis. While some commissions did come through, it wasn't what you expected. You soon realized there was more to affiliate marketing then copying and pasting links and banners.

You then proceeded to explore other methods for promoting your affiliate business. Along the way, you came across article marketing, and all the opportunities it affords. You engaged in article writing, article submission, and aligned yourself with an article distribution service. Things started to happen.

As you engaged in more article promotion campaigns, you noticed the increased traffic heading your way. You tracked the increased clicks on your affiliate banners and text links on your site. You noticed increased conversion rates and affiliate commissions. You were, and are still, reaping the benefits of article marketing. The combination of you finding the best affiliate programs and adding your article marketing efforts to the mix was like a bonanza.

Today, you stake your affiliate marketing success on article marketing and other promotional initiatives. Do you pass this knowledge onto your downline? Do they know how article marketing works? Have you encouraged, and even helped them in their article writing and article marketing efforts? If your downline sees you as their personal mentor/trainer then you should do all these things.

Many of your downline affiliate program members are novices to the entire marketing game. They may have read hordes of information on the Internet about making money online. Maybe a friend of theirs inspired them to give affiliate marketing a try because of their success.

Your downline member fired up a website and away they went. They went exactly the way you may have when you began, flying by-the-seat-of-your-pants. They may find the landing hard if they do not receive marketing guidance along the way.

That's where you come in. That's where you in an organized systematic manner teach motivated downline members the ins and outs of article marketing. You will do this so they will reap affiliate commissions faster. You will do this so they will not become discouraged with affiliate marketing and drop out of the program. Of course, you will do it to strengthen your overall team and build tier two income. Hey, this is capitalism, there has to be benefit for you as well.

How will you approach your mentoring on article marketing? First, you will explain to your downline exactly what article marketing is. You will explain its components and what its aims are as related to affiliate marketing. You want to make sure your downline understands the purpose of article marketing, why it works.

Next, you want to go through the elements of what constitutes a good article. Teach your downline members how they need to make sure their content imparts useful information to readers. Teach them the importance of building their credibility as knowledgeable affiliate marketers. Teach them what niche publishers do not want in articles and how they want them formatted.

In addition, show your downline how you approach article writing and article marketing. Show them examples of your content, the ones that garnered hits, and the ones that did not. Let them learn from you and your successes, and yes, even your mistakes. They will ride the learning curve quicker and be more productive as article marketers. When they build their business through article marketing, they build yours as well.

As an affiliate mentor/trainer, you have a responsibility to your downline. Your responsibility is to teach them from your knowledge base. Your responsibility is to help them avoid mistakes that take them into affiliate marketing oblivion.

You want them to reap the same bonanza you have. You want them to stake their affiliate marketing success on those proven promotional tools. Training your downline in article marketing means you can both prospect for success. There's affiliate marketing gold in "them thar hills"; train your downline so you find that gold together.