I was reading a few relevant tips from Darren at ProBlogger about some Do’s and Dont’s for professional business blogs. I wanted to pass on his wisdoms because I think that they’re right on the money, no pun intended.
These are the same strategies I use on my blogs Affiliate Blogger, Affiliate Marketers and Affiliate Blog.
The topic was about what to do if you have viewers coming to your blog, but they never buy anything through you. The advice is sage:

Product relevancy and quality - unless the products you’re promoting relate to the content/topic of your blogging you’re wasting your time. Not only should they be relevant - they should be quality affiliate products. Don’t get sucked into promoting something just because it relates to your site. Test it for yourself and if it’s rubbish - stay clear. You can hurt your own reputation by recommending second rate products.

Traffic - the more people that see the promotions you run the better. While traffic isn’t the only factor, it is certainly a big one. Work at drawing people to your blog and particularly to the pages that you are featuring affiliate promotions on.

Placement - affiliate links IN content tend to out perform promotions that you run in sidebars or banner ads. One genuine review of the product (see next point) seen by a handful of readers can be much more powerful than a banner at the top of your blog seen by many readers.

Your reputation and ‘Sales Pitch’ - I find that affiliate products work best for me on sites where I have a loyal readership of people who respect what I say and when I give genuine recommendation that show not only the positives of a product but the weaknesses in it. The way you promote the product is as influencial as almost anything else. Don’t hype, don’t lie and don’t spin it.

Affiliate Tips for Blogs - Read More...