As I said in the previous post, affiliate marketing is actually quite simple.

Anyone can do it, it’s really cheap to get started with virtually no investment required, you can even start for almost nothing.

If you where renting premises for a store, you’re minimum start-up costs would run into the thousands.

So what’s the catch, or trap?

Like most business, it’s in the detail. Let’s break affiliate marketing down a little.

Do you really know:

What is a good market and what level or niche you should target?

It’s not so much about just picking a niche, there are thousands to choose from, but you need to find the ones that you can compete in, and at the right level to make money.

Know what keywords are, and which ones will convert to sales?

This is a big one, quite simply, if you don’t target the right keywords you might as well pack up and go back to your day job.When you’re getting started, you probably won’t build a site with thousands of pages that will rank somewhat naturally, you’ll be targeting a relatively small number of keywords for fast results.

What technical skills will you need?

Marketing, site installation, what software, coding, graphics, content, traffic generation, search engine optimization, pay per click, CPA, CPM, outsourcing, the list goes on, and on….

Do you know what will be required, or can you afford to pay to get it done?

Do you know how to put a business plan together, set targets and goals, build schedules, what to do yourself, what to outsource, how to outsource, how much to pay, how to manage your time and results?

How to manage multiple sites?

Do you realise how much time and effort it can take to manage multiple sites, adding more content, keeping traffic coming in, link building, monitoring all your stats, and competition checking.

Yes, someone is after your customers and ranking position, but I thought I could just “set it and forget it” I hear you say. Sometimes but not always, if you’ve multiple sites and don’t have the right systems in place to manage them, the day will come when you suddenly realise that your incomes disappeared!

Doesn’t sound so easy now then?

So what’s the answer, and how can you vastly improve your chances of succeeding with internet marketing?

Read the next part of the series about How to Learn Internet Marketing