For many beginners, affiliate programs seem like a dream come true: earn a commission selling another company's products or services. No need to create one of your own! What's even better is that you only have to place a couple of banners or links on your website, and this hot product will sell itself! Right?

No. Just like with any other online business, earning money from affiliate programs requires education and experience with Internet marketing. Affiliate programs are a great way to learn basics of marketing online. Although it's rare person who makes a significant full-time income from them, many people find that they provide an excellent supplementary income stream.

Many newbies to 'net are so eager to get started that they sign up with every affiliate program that looks good to them. They advertise like crazy, often spend hundreds of dollars -- only to be disappointed at their complete lack of sales.

So what does it take to make money with an affiliate program? Here are a few key tips ...

__Make Smart Choices.

To get started, choose only one or two high-quality programs that are a good fit with your website audience. For example, if you're running a crafts website, don't advertise technical software.

One or two programs will provide you with plenty of work to begin with. More than that and you may find yourself frantically trying to promote too many and having little success. It's better to start earning money with a couple of good programs first, then gradually add additional income streams later on.

You may also find, over time, that your audience responds to a certain type of product and not to others. Test different offers to see which ones your audience like best.

__Don't Rely on Your Downline.

Frankly, average Joe hopped on internet in first place to be able to grab some of gold floating around cyberspace and earn some extra 'grub' anonymously...

Yes using anonymity of a faceless email and without all hassles of an ordinary business... building a 'mailing list' is simply a non-attainable goal.

Other Stumbling blocks are:

- Loss of affiliate revenue due to affiliate link theft.

- Non acceptance of affiliate links by search engines.

- Loss of advertising revenue - Even though program claims for eg. 'sales copy is so good every 6th person is signing up or buying' – affiliate orders guaranteed hits using traffic exchanges only to be disappointed or feel a temporary elation with a few sales...

All that advertising simply helps to create a 'buzz' about program with no positive impact to affiliate...

Rarely if ever does anyone buy on a first visit to site and by time they have been 'buzzed into hypnotic action' to buy, it’s definitely not from first, second or even third sites they visited. Also they usually buy from someone who has an 'up-sell' offer, someone to whose mailing list they already belong or someone they have come to trust.

All is not lost however, you can master affiliate game yet... Without a mailing list.

So lets get started:

1. Prepare an independent web page for each affiliate program with

- A magnetically irresistible title;

- followed by a bulleted list of benefits using ‘grab them by gut’ writing.