Are you new to the world of affiliate marketing? Wondering where to begin? If I offered a $200 ebook on how to be an instant millionaire with affiliate marketing would you buy it?

If you answered yes to any of these three questions, this post is for you.

Everyone online who has made money with affiliate programs, started out as a newbie just like you at one time.   They will now tell you that affiliate marketing is hard work, yet profitable.

But that’s good news because that means that with a little hard work, you can be a super affiliate too.

On your path to affiliate superstardom, take these important words to heart:

Educate yourself on Affiliate marketing.

I don’t mean spending thousands of dollars on ebooks from self proclaimed Internet gurus either.

Join (and participate in) forums about internet marketing, affiliate programs, or affiliate marketing.  This is a free way to learn about about affiliate marketing.

Many online experts recommend you join a forum just to build backlinks to your website or landing page, but there’s a better reason why you should do this.

Joining a community that shares your goals will help educate you in ways an ebook never could.  Not only that, but by participating in community forums, you begin to build trust amongst the community members .  This means that one day you can market to them without looking like a hack and a spammer.

Don’t Buy Advertising — At first.

If I know you, you’re probably thinking that the best way to market your affiliate program is by starting an Adwords pay per click program or purchasing banner advertising to shuttle traffic to your site.

If you do this, get ready to sell your car to pay for your groceries.

pssst…..here’s a dirty little secret

There are ways you can advertise for free.  How?

Classified Ads.  Press Releases.  Forum Marketing.  Social Bookmarking sites.  YouTube.  MySpace. Article Writing.

Get the picture?

Don’t waste your money on ‘How To’ ebooks that sound too good to be true.

Not to say that there aren’t any good ebooks out there.  I own quite a few good titles that have made me some good money.

But unfortunately, there are a handful of scam artists that will try and con you out of your money with fake promises of overnight riches.  They will sell you their ’system’ for over a hundred dollars and tempt you with impressive Adsense or Clickbank snapshots.

Consider for a moment that there is not Internet law right now that can protect you from misleading advertising.  I could doctor a fake click bank reports image and not be held accountable for my numbers. I’m not saying that every Internet guru is lying by any means.

If you are tempted to buy a fancy ebook or report, Google the title and read reviews.  Also, most of these ebooks come with resale rights, so before you spend 50 or a 100 dollars for an ebook, head over to ebay and see if it is being sold at a cheaper price.  Finally, never purchase an ebook without a warrantee and if it fails to deliver, ask for a refund.

We all know that article marketing is one of the best ways to generate targeted traffic to your website or niche product. I don’t know about you, but I’ve personally invested in numerous article submission software thinking they would save me time.

Boy was I wrong.

Now, before I continue, let me tell you what I think automatic article submission should be work.

1. Write Article.
2. Push Submit.
3. Article is submitted. Work done. Have fun at the beach!

I’ve purchased article submission software such as ‘Article Submitter’ thinking that it would save me a couple hours of work, but i can tell you that iwith these toold, it can take several hours to get one article submitted.

The fact of the matter is that article submission software such as ‘Article Submitter’ is not automatic. If anything, they are semi automatic. You still have to log on to each article website and make sure the article is formatted correctly for the directory.

Looking for a better way to submit your articles? Want a truly automatic process?

Outsource the work and have somebody else do the submissions for you. This is the fastest and most cost effective way of getting your articles to as many article directories as you can without doing the actual grunt work yourself.

Where can you find people to submit articles for you?

If you want to find super cheap labor, try logging on to different marketing forums. Most of the time these forums have a classifieds forum where people advertise article submitting services. But remember, you get what you pay for here!

If money is no object, you can outsource your work to freelance sites such as elance.com. With websites like Elance you can outsource your article submission work to Internet marketers.

Finally, the easiest way to subscribe to an article submitting service such as SubmitYOURArticle.com

With SubmitYOURArticle.com, you can literally submit your article to thousands of article publishers with 1 click of a button. They are the only 100% automated article distribution service around.

If you’re contemplating buying article submission software, i encourage you to try SubmitYOURArticle.com first. Their service is relatively inexpensive and extremely fast.

So, you want to make money online, eh? It’s not as easy as some folks make it out to be, you know.

Well, let me rephrase that…

It IS EASY make money online, but it takes HARD WORK in order for you to make enough money to quit your day job.

Do you honestly think you’re going to make some money by making a junk website filled with Adsense and banners? Seriously, you might make 10 cents — if you’re lucky.

If you are really serious about making big money online then you need a product then you need to promote that product. Sounds easy enough right?

Lets break down the process a bit more.

3 Steps to Making Money Online.

Step 1. Creating A Product

Info products are hot hot hot! I recommend you buy a PLR product from a trusted individual on forums and use what was taught inside. The best place to get a TON of PLR products is PLR Membership Online . PLR Membership Online provides it’s members with 650 new fresh PLR articles EVERY MONTH! What’s even better is that for a very limited time, you can get instant access to a ton of Unique PLR articles that you can use to build your own product for only $9.75 a month. That’s probably less than your hosting costs each month.

Anyway, once you’ve found a good PLR product, read it then rewrite it from your own point of view.

Step 2. Figure out Your Method of Attack.

Are you going to sell your new eBook or give away a sample page, or just give the eBook away for free. Both methods have their advantages.

If you’re going to sell your eBook, then you are going to have to price it just right. You don’t want to price your product to cheap, but at the same time you don’t want to charge an arm and a leg either. When figuring out your product’s price, ask yourself, ‘How much would I pay for this eBook?…. not ‘How much can I make with this eBook’. You will be a lot more successfull if you put yourself in the shoes of the buyer!

Another strategy is to give a way a sample page of your eBook, in hopes of luring prospective buyers into buying your entire ebook.

Step 3. Get traffic!

There are several very effective ways (and free) ways of getting traffic to your product.

1. Submit your site to high ranking Social Bookmarking sites
2. Articles Directory. - Write articles everyday promoting your product and you will see results quickly!
3. Advertise on classified ad sites such as Craigslist.

Be creative! You just need to get your message out to as many people as possible.

If you’re not willing to take the time to work hard, then you will not make more than a quarter online. Don’t be afraid to be a little different and think outside the box!