Becoming an affiliate with an established company is an excellent way for a new Internet entrepreneur to learn about online business and build an income for his own business. But do not join just any company.

Perform what is termed “due diligence” first. Investigate each company thoroughly by asking following 9 questions:

1. How long has company been established? A brand new company, no matter how good it sounds, has not had time to prove itself. Many new companies do not last a year on Internet. You want one that has been around for three to six years or more.

2. Is company a one-person operation or a real company with real employees, and real products? Some one-person companies are highly successful, but rarely do they have successful affiliate programs. You will be better off going with a large fully established company.

3. What kind of products does company offer for affiliates to sell? Products should be easy to sell, known, high quality, and reasonably priced. A diversity of products helps, too. The company might have one terrific product, but once you sell this product to someone, what will you use as a follow-up to that same customer?

4. What amount of commission does company offer? If commission is less than 30%, it’s not worth your time and effort.

5. Does company have a scheduled time when they pay commissions or do they insist you must accumulate a certain amount before they will pay? Watch out for this. Sometimes with an accumulation policy you might not reach required total for quite a while. If you don’t keep in touch with company, they will assume you have dropped out and keep your hard earned commission money.

There is no doubt about it, 99% of people making money online have an email list. But you already knew that.

What you don't know is how they got those coveted lists of email addresses that allow them to contact prospects over and over again.

To be very honest with you, most people who have built a big email list have their own product. But I know getting your own successful product is very difficult.

So I want to talk about how you can begin building your email list as an affiliate. With no product, and no website of your own.

The first thing you need to do is understand reason you are not making as much money as you had hoped with affiliate programs.

Lets look at a quick real world example. I think it will help you see what real problem is with way most affiliates try make money online.

Let's say you are promoting printers for a particular merchant. And let’s say that you referred 700 visitors, generated merchant 100 leads and made 5 sales this month. Not a bad month.