Before you jump into promoting a product you’ve found on say… Clickbank or Commision Junction there are a few things you should know that will same you time, money, and lots of heartache.

First, choose a reputable coach to learn the ins and outs. When I first began marketing, I ended up on so many e-mail mailing opt-in lists that I didn’t know which “guru” to listen to and ultimately got firehosed with TOO much “free” information. In fact, if I had a nickle for everytime I heard, “This is the most important thing you need to know!”, I wouldn’t need to be in business anymore! Free information is GREAT! But, if you don’t understand how to apply that fantastic free tip in your business you will end up frustrated instead of making money. So, getting back to the basics… choose a reputable coach and BUY their program.

Start with just ONE coaching program at a time. The reason I say this is because each instructor has their own system that will walk you step-by-step from beginning to end. This will keep you from the inevitable “paralysis by analysis” syndrome of too much information coming to you at once. Learn one strategy at a time. Another benefit of buying a coaching program is that you will learn the critical details of being successful that you won’t find amongst the myriad of free tips you read about on various sites. Now don’t get me wrong, there are many credible marketers that are giving away incredible information that will be priceless to your business, and I can think of three or four such people off the top of my head. But, until you understand the basic process of affiliate marketing, you won’t know how to apply the awesome new tip you just learned. So, again, go out and purchase a coaching program!

Okay, so now you’ve chosen the program you want and you’ve listened to all the cd’s and watched the dvd’s. NOW WHAT? Don’t do what 90% of all new marketers do… NOTHING! Make a committment to yourself that you will do one action item a day. If all you can spare is one hour a day, then do one action item in that one hour. But, do SOMETHING! Affiliate marketing is not a get-rich-quick-overnight scheme. However, the potential to earn a ton of money in a short period of time DOES EXIST if you learn a strategy and put it into action. Though it will require DEDICATION and ACTION on your part!

So, what do I mean by “action”? Doing an action item can be anything that begins building your business. Examples include: opening a clickbank account, buidling your website, incorporating your company, finding a hosting company to host your website, creating a banner ad, installing adsense, ect… You get the picture? It doesn’t matter if you only do ONE action item a day, soon you will see results of your efforts and the sales coming in faster than you thought possible!

Don’t be discouraged that your learning curve takes a little while. Learning the ropes is all part of the process. I am a perpetual student, and I carve out time in my daily schedule to stay on top of the current techniques of affiliate marketing. But, all the learning in the world won’t send me a paycheck if I don’t apply that knowledge. So be sure to find a nice balance between learning and application – hence taking Action!

I hope you found this article useful. Soon, I’ll provide a list of reputable coaching programs and reviews of each to help you choose one that best suites your needs and interests! Not to mention help you save your hard earned dollars!!

I get asked this question a lot.  In fact, just recently I was explaining Affiliate Marketing to my dear ‘ole Dad and found that the more I tried to map it out for him the more complexity there is to this wonderful industry.  By end of the conversation, I was able to sum it all up by saying it is an opportunity to make large sums of money simply marketing other people’s products online for a commission of their sales price!! That finally sunk in…

But to give the formal explanation to the question, I’ll begin with a quick definition. Based on the concept of crowdsourcing (outsourcing to a large group of people), a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought to their site via online marketing efforts. Generally, the affiliate uses an Internet-based marketing practice but not always to direct traffic to the business.

So, by now you must be wondering, “How does this industry work”? Let’s look at identifying the “players” and how it all comes together so that YOU the affiliate marketer can see the potential to earn a paycheck!

There are four major players in the game: the Merchant (more commonly known as ‘Retailer’ or ‘Brand’), the Network, the Publisher (more popularly identified as ‘the Affiliate’) and the Customer. Supporting the four major players also include Affiliate Management Agencies, Super-Affiliates and Specialized Third Parties vendors. But we’ll address those players in another article so as to not complicate things!

Now, how do these players interact? If I had a diagram, the process flow goes something like this: The Customer goes to the Affiliate site (undoubtedly because of a smart marketing technique) à from there is re-directed to the Merchant à the Merchant then compensates the Affiliate.  The process itself is the actual Network (the fourth major player).  Makes sense so far?

Where Affiliate marketing gets fun is in the methods marketers use to generate the traffic. After all, getting the traffic leads to sales and that’s where the money is to be made! Some of the known methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, e-mail marketing, and in some cases display advertising.  Sometimes affiliates use other creative techniques such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.

Affiliate marketing is a fun industry to work in, and the opportunity to earn large paychecks if limitless with the right training and knowledge. With a little time, effort, and patience, YOU TOO can break into this awesome industry!

Want to know how to get started on the right foot without wasting precious time and hard earned money on out-of-date and useless information? And believe me, been there, done that! Stay tuned for my next article… How to Get Started in Affiliate Marketing!