This is especially true if you’re an affiliate marketer, because you’ll always direct compete with other affiliates who’re selling the exact same product.  Fortunately, there are ways around that.

Indeed, competition isn’t even an issue when you follow these three time-tested tips:

1. Establish a relationship with your prospects.

People buy from those they know, like and trust, which is why it’s so important for you to build a relationship with your prospects.  You can do this building a blog, touching base with your subscribers via a mailing list or using social media (like Twitter) to keep in contact with prospects.

Now think about it.  When they decide to buy a product, who’s affiliate link will they choose? Will they choose the random affiliate like they find in Google, or will they go with the link from the person they know? That’s right, with all else being equal, buyers will usually purchase from the person they know, like and trust the most.

If you build a relationship, that person will be YOU!

2. Advertise in places your competition can’t reach.

Your competition has probably flooded AdWords, the search engines, CraigsList.org, the social media sites and everywhere else online. But I bet they’re not advertising in your own hometown paper, on local talk radio, or on flyers in your neighborhood. If you advertise in those places, there’s a good chance that you’ll be the only one advertising that particular affiliate product!

3. Add value to the offer.

Let’s say your there’s a large chunk of your prospects who are also on other marketers’ lists in your niche (which isn’t unusual).

That means that your competitors are also building relationships with these prospects. And quite possibly, the affiliate who gets the commission may simply be the first one to tell the prospect about the product.

The solution?

Tip the scales in your favor by adding value to the offer. In other words, give your prospects a bonus if they order through your affiliate link.

TIP: Remember, this only applies to affiliate programs that reward the last affiliate. If the program rewards the first affiliate, then it won’t matter if you close the sale with a prospect – the first affiliate still gets the commission.

Many of the big affiliate programs – like all those run by Clickbank.com – reward the last affiliate.

So, how do you add value to your offer?

Obviously, you should offer something that’s highly desirable, valuable AND easy to deliver. Ideally, it should be something that compliments the main product and overall enhances the purchase.

For example:

• You might offer free installation if you’re promoting software.

• You can offer a free report that shows people how to get better results with the main product. For example, you might offer an “advanced eBay® tricks” report to compliment a “how to make money with online auctions” product.

• You might offer something that enhances the original purchase, such as a recipe book as a bonus to a dieting product or a copywriting report to go with a PPC marketing product.

NOTE: Even though I mentioned a service in the first example, generally you’ll want to offer products since they’re quick and easy to deliver (and if they’re downloadable, you don’t incur any expenses)

EXAMPLE: You might send a product pitch directly to your newsletter list and encourage them to buy using your link in order to get your bonus. Or you might create a product review section on your blog where you review and compare products as a means of directly pitching them to your readers.

Sometimes, however, you want to be a little sneaky. You don’t want to be so direct and “in your face” with your pitches. You don’t want your prospects to feel like they’re being sold to. Rather, you want them to feel like you’re a good friend just helping out.

Here then are three sneaky, “under the radar” ways to get your affiliate links in front of your prospects…

1. Get prospects to analyze a sales page. Here you ask your prospects to examine a sales page, but not because you want your prospects to purchase the product.

For example, you might tell your copywriting students to examine the headline and bullet points. You might even ask them to tell you how to improve those points.

Other examples: Asking graphic and design prospects to examine the design of the page or asking usability students what they think of the ordering process.

2. Weave a product link into a “how to” article. Another way to indirectly promote a product is by giving prospects step-by-step instructions for some task. The trick is that one of the instructions includes the use of a product (which is where you drop your link).

For example, you might create an article telling people how to clean their computer of viruses and then protect themselves in the future. One of the steps might involve purchasing a specific anti-virus program.

It works because it’s not a direct pitch. It never crosses the prospects’ minds that they’re reading an ad. Instead, your readers will feel grateful that they’ve found your helpful article.

3. Use a contest to get prospects to look at a sales page. You can use a contest as an excuse to get prospects to look at a sales page. For example, you can ask reader’s to scour a page looking for grammatical errors or count how many times the word “discover” is used. (The winner is chosen randomly from among all correct entries.)

I saved the best (and bonus tip) for last…

4. Use a contest to get the prospects to sell themselves. For example, you can create a contest where the person who creates the best commercial for a product wins a prize. While your prospects create these commercials, they’ll sell themselves on purchasing the product!

Point is, you don’t have to put a direct sales pitch in front of your prospects in order to sell an affiliate product. And sometimes, you’ll find that the indirect approach creates the highest conversion rates!