The opportunities for affiliate marketing are numerous and growing every single day. Here is how it works. The affiliate places a banner or link advertisement on their website and every time a customer clicks through from affiliate website to merchant site and makes a purchase affiliate earns a commission.

Which of those two questions do you think is most important? I say second. Without doing your preparation "homework," you will lose your focus.

The affiliate programs that you promote are "your" products. Take time to learn everything you can about that product. Even though you are not actually selling product (you should be PRE-selling), you still must know what you are talking about.

The best way to do that, of course, is to own product yourself. But whether you own product or not, study sales copy that was written by owner of product. You'll be able to lead your prospects toward "the click" much easier if you know why you want them to click on that link.

When preparing an advertising campaign, ask yourself what you want to achieve. That is your goal.

Now write down steps that you need to take to get to that goal. Don't forget that there can be more than one way to get there. Use your imagination!