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Successful affiliate marketing is based in large part on your ability to drive targeted traffic at will, and on effectively building and operating double opt-in mailing lists targeted to each niche you're attacking. This article is aimed at those already active in the affiliate marketing arena, so if you haven't got a handle on those two activities go back and learn those first - you need the firm base they provide in place first to build your super-affiliate status. If you're already rocking the affiliate world, it's time to start delving deeper into the super-affiliate strategies that can build a truly profitable LONG-TERM business for you. And to achieve that kind of success and be a true super-affiliate, you need to balance your efforts between short & long-term opportunities.Balancing your short-term needs versus your long-term goals is only common sense, yet PLANNING for it is most-often overlooked by average affiliates. There are any number of immediate affiliate opportunities - you grab your affiliate link, fire off an e-mail to your opt-in list and watch commissions rack up. A number of factors influence how many sales you make - the size of your lists, how well you pre-sold the product, how tightly your list is targeted to that niche, etc - right down to your track record in only promoting tools and opportunities that are truly helpful to your readers. Be that all as it may, you'll most likely make commissions in the same range as you usually do. Add a few good tweets on Twitter to help keep your earnings up to your current standard. And your money you've earned will arrive somewhere between the same day, a month later (standard) or two months later. That's why it's short-range: the commissions were earned in a day or two, comes in now or in the near future, and you are ready to move on to the next product or service you're promoting. Long term affiliate marketing strategies, on the other hand, involve a lot more time investment but pay off for (hopefully) a lot longer. For best results, focus these campaigns around either big-ticket items with hefty price tags or opportunities that can provide residual commissions like membership sites, services, etc. Both higher commissions because of the price and ongoing commissions from the initial sale make these worth putting a lot more time and resources into.The difficulty lies in the time it takes to get these campaigns built, optimized and running effectively - while they definitely can pay off big time, you still need to pay the bills while building and promoting your promotional empire for that offer. And that's where the balance comes in. Start by focusing all your time and effort into short-term opportunities until you've got enough coming in to meet current needs and next month's - remember that the bulk of this month's commissions will arrive at some point during next month. (each individual merchant posts payment terms in their affiliates' section - be sure you know when each pays out.) As soon as you've generated enough to cover you for this month and next, switch your focus to your next long-term promotion. Now that you know the bills are paid and you've got spending money, mobilize your entire affiliate marketing arsenal of tools to promote either a long-term residual commission opportunity, or a 4 or 5-figure product/service. This is when you take the time to write and submit articles, create & submit videos, press releases, etc, either post to your existing blogs or set up a new highly-targeted blog, arrange interviews to use for teleseminars, podcasts, list-building gifts, etc., write an e-course in the topic, produce one or more viral report on the subject, set up e-zine ad swaps and all the rest. Most affiliates never put that much into promoting an affiliate marketing opportunity - but then affiliates seldom, if ever, make what super-affiliates do...Just be careful not to get too wrapped up in promoting the big-dollar and residual opportunities to the extent that you run into cashflow problems - as soon as the month ends, switch back to your short-term efforts to build your cashflow back up for that month and the next. Hopefully by keeping to those balances affiliate marketing activities you'll avoid cashflow shortages as you build up your online business and your mailing lists, and get to the point where the recurring commissions from your previous promotions more than meet current needs - at which point you can focus that much more on the events that make you the greatest affiliate commissions. Because at that point, you're well on your way to becoming the next super-affiliate rockstar!