One of the best Internet money-making ideas, which happens to be also the easiest and fastest to implement, is to learn affiliate marketing, and to start selling other people’s stuff and make money in the process.
This is how I started myself, when I arrived in France in 2000, without money, without job, married, and with two small kids. However, I had to learn the hard way with trial and – lots of – error. You can pick an easier route by choosing between some established tutors, who themselves are making a lot of money online with affiliate marketing.
Here are some of the programmes and books, which focus on all-round knowledge about affiliate marketing, and which I’ve tried myself. Read on to see, which one you should pick:
Affilorama: Affilorama offers a lot of free lessons of very high quality (text and video). Premium members can download those in other formats. Affilorama also offers a forum (free), and different tools. Premium members have access to many more tools, your own web hosting, and much more.
I only became free member yesterday, but I have already learnt something new. Tomorrow, I will sign up for premium membership, and I’ll let you know more about the results, I get, when I’ve tested it for a while. Don’t wait for my review, though. You can sign up for free already today, and enjoy all the things that are gratis.
My rating: 
Click HERE to go to Affilorama
Wealthy Affiliate University: WA includes among other things lessons (PDF and video), a forum, your own blog, different tools, your own web hosting.
I was a member for two months last year, and I loved it there. People were helpful, warm, there were no spam on the forum, but lots of great tips. I loved the point system, where you actually could earn money by being helpful to other members. I also liked that you could have your own spot/profile there.
It could seem hard for beginners to find their way through the huge amounts of lessons, and from the lessons themselves, I didn’t learn anything new. They were good for beginners, though. On the other hand, I learned tons of great things from the forum, but I found the monthly payment too high.
My rating:
Click HERE to go to Wealthy Affiliate University
Super Affiliate Handbook: This is a classic. The Super Affiliate Handbook was written by Rosalind Gardner in 2003, and she’s kept it updated ever since. My copy has been revised March 31, 2010.
When I read it almost a year ago, I was a little disappointed. I’d expected more step-by-step guides, of which there were none. This is a must in every affiliate marketer’s virtual bookshelf, though. It contains all the basic knowledge, you need.
My rating:
Hello Britt, thanks for recommending Affiliorama; they do offer a lot of free value. I agree with you that, for beginners at least, it is essential to have a clear road map through the jungle of information that is available. I also liked the story of your success in your ebook, starting out with your passion, and see the money come in due time. Would you still recommend adsense as a main income stream for starters, or what is your recommendation now for how and when to start monetizing your blog?
Hello Kai, and thank you very much for your useful comment.
Would I still recommend AdSense as a main income stream for starters?
Yes.
That was not the way, I went. I started out with affiliate products (mostly one mail client, in fact), but it’s much easier to start with content on a blog or webpage and AdSense.
Doing affiliate marketing successfully takes a lot of learning. You can either do that yourself, and fail a lot, or you have to study this trade.
With AdSense, you can be up and running with almost no knowledge at all. It’s true, though, that the big money will only come, when you’ve learned more about optimising your pages, the way you blend in the adverts, etc., but even with little to no knowledge, you can make a few dollars almost immediately.
Britt, thanks for responding so quickly. With the rapid changes in Internet traffic opportunities we are seeing now (big companies driving up ad prices), it seems that whatever info you can find on affiliate marketing is almost outdated by the time it hits the market. What do you see as the best traffic strategy for affiliate marketing now – you own choice?
I think the best choice is individual. For me, it’s article writing and submitting to directories. For others, it might be videos. I think articles and videos are the best two choices over the long run. I just don’t like creating videos 😀
Bookmarking works fine, too, as immediate traffic source. I’ve spend a couple of seconds bookmarking two blog posts on Stubmle Upon, and I’ve reached more traffic from that source yesterday than from my articles. But my guess is that it will die down a lot faster. Articles (or videos) stays online and can drive traffic for a long period of time.
What do you think? What is your choice?