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.

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!

Affiliate marketing is the hottest way to make money online these days. Many affiliate programs play between 30 ot 75% a sale!

I’m not saying Affiliate Marketing is easy by any means. It takes hard work and clever ‘outside of the box’ thinking.

Why is Affiliate Marketing so challenging for most? Many novices don’t know how to promote their product. If you’re having a hard time selling your product then remember this,

It’s not what your selling that’s necessarily the problem, it’s how your selling it.

Just like in real life marketing, affiliate marketing is really a numbers game. The more prospects that see your message, the more sales you will make. Don’t be fooled into thinking you can place one or two affiliate links here and become a millionaire overnight. How many cans of cola would Pepsi sell if they only aired two commercials a year?

There are some basic ways to promote your product online:

• Pay per Click Advertising
  • Can be effective but can also get pricey unless you know what your doing
• Forum signatures
  • Free method of advertising, make sure you read the forum’s TOS first.
• Email signatures
  • If you email a lot, using email signatures is a great way to generate interest in your product.
• Writing Articles
  • Writing and submitting articles can be a great way to get sales.
• Classified Ads
  • A great way to advertise services or dating sites!
• Purchase Banner/Text Ads on Popular Site
  • Can get pricey and shouldn’t be your only method of generating sales.

Of course, I’m sure you can can think of many other creative ways to promote your affiliate program. But the bottom line is that your goal is to get the word out to as many people as possible. The more people that are exposed to your message, the more sales and commission you will make!

Easy, simply use your articles to promote affiliate products.

To make money with articles that you place on websites, you will need a variety of good, solid, and well paying affiliate programs that will help to generate revenue.

When you pick an affiliate program, think about your niche subject. What company best complements your subject. If you’re writing about real estate, it wouldn’t make sense to promote lipstick would it?

Also, The most important thing to keep in mind when picking affiliates to promote is to keep your niche audience in mind. Otherwise you will be promoting a product to a group of people who do not even want nor need it. If your niche site targets parents of young children, then promote baby products. If you niche site targets gardeners, then promote gardening products.

Now, I know your probably thinking that the best way to your pot of gold is by promoting the highest paying affiliate program, right? A program that pays over $100 dollars might sound appealing, but how well does that product or service convert? In other words how well does it sell?

Before you get hazy-eyed by big dollar signs, remember that some products are bound to sell more than others. If you sell on product four times a year from a little known company that gives you $100 per sale or sell a well known product 3 times a week at the rate of $10 per sale, then you will make much more money with the $10 per sale product.

Lastly, there are two main ways to find an affiliate company for your niche website. You can sign up with a company that manages the accounts of hundreds of companies, big and small, and apply for the products within these accounts or you can do a web search for companies that would match well with your niche, visit their websites, and see if they advertise an affiliate program. Three of the most popular affiliate companies include Clickbank , Commission Junction , and Linkshare .

Clickbank deals primarily with info products and info services. Most commission rates per sale runs between 10% to 75%.

Commission Junction Having an affiliate account with Commission Junction, also known as CJ, will allow you to sell mostly physical products, with exception to Web hosting and Domain companies.

LinkShare – Similar to CJ, most of Linkshare’s businesses deal with actual physical goods which have to be shipped to the buyer.

Joe Bucks

With Joe Bucks , you are marketing and promoting health supplements and beauty products. market and promote the worlds leading health supplements and beauty products online. Joe Bucks offers the highest paying affiliate program combined with an A1 affiliate tracking software.

With top of the line marketing material, tracking tools, and support, Joe Bucks offers an incredible opportunity for website owners interested in monetizing their website.

Joe Bucks offers a 50% revenue share program plus 5% second tier commissions on referred webmasters.

Commission payments are sent twice a month on the 1st and 16th with no minimums and, Unlike most affiliate programs, Joe Bucks track sales and commissions on all phone, newsletter and mail orders and take nothing from your commission for product returns for any reason.

Joe Bucks Commission Payouts:

• 50% Commission Per Sale
• 50% Commission on all Re-Orders
• 5% Commission on Referred Webmaster Sales
• Biweekly Payments on the 1st and 16th
• No Minimums
• Check by Mail
• Bank Wire

Considering how much time and effort you’ve put into your affiliate marketing efforts, what have you done to protect your hard work?

For example, take into account the following URLs. Be honest, which one would you click on?

http://www.dog-trainers-guide.com/?affiliate_id=joeblow
or
http://www.dog-trainers-guide.com

Affiliate links are easily recognizable by many people, which may cause them to avoid clicking the link because they don’t want to be ‘sold’ or ‘tricked’ into anything.

Another issue is link hijacking. Affiliate link hijacking is an unethical practice where someone replacing his your affiliate ID with theirs, stealing your commissions.

Cloaking your affiliate links will help prevent link hijacking, link bypassing, and encourages your visitors into clicking your affiliate links. Affiliate link cloaking has become an indispensable part of affiliate marketing and is one of the best ways to protect your affiliate sales, conversions, and commissions

If you don’t cloak your affiliate links, you are opening yourself to being robbed and losing your hard earned commissions.

There are many ways to cloak your affiliate links. Here are a few ideas:

1. URL Redirecting Services

Tiny URL and Short URL – Both of these services can shorten and hide an affiliate link. For example:

http://dog-trainer.com/?affiliate=joeblow
would look like this
http://tinyurl.com/2jgn6v

2. Using Subdomains
If you own your own domain and web hosting that allows you an ‘X’ amount of subdomains, you can redirect using a subdomains. So, instead of this:

http://dog-trainer.com/?affiliate=joeblow
would look like this
http://training-dogs.my-website-url.com

For more information on subdomains and how to redirect your subdomains, check with your web host provider.

3. WordPress Plug-In
If you are using a WordPress blog, there is a brand new Link Cloaking Plug-in that will automatically cloak all external links, including affiliate links. It is easy to install and configure. If you are using WordPress, you should check it out.