Many people think that affiliate marketing is an easy way to make money online, but it is more difficult than imagined to achieve good results.

What are some of the key points to consider when planning an affiliate campaign?

It is best to have a one-page web site for each product or service that will be promoted. This will be used as part of the pre selling process, which is important to gain the confidence of potential buyers of the products.

It is important to use a pre selling page to explain the benefits of the product or service being promoted, for example saving time, money etc.

It is important to have a headline and subheading. A good way to continue then is to have a list of bullet points explaining the various benefits of the product.

It is essential to choose the headline and subheading very carefully. This will make the difference between success and failure. Good copy writing is the key. Get the reader's attention with the headline. Make them want to read more.

The next step is to add an email form from an auto responder. This step is very important, because apart from the fact that a new name is added to an email list, it will be used as part of the pre selling process.

To encourage people to sign up using the email form, give them a free report or ebook.

Then set the auto responder to send a confirmation email, which must be returned confirming that they accept to receive emails from you. This is called double opt in. This is important because of the anti-spam laws regarding unsolicited emails.

Then over a period of days or weeks send a series of emails explaining the benefits, or even a mini course depending on the affiliate program, on how the product can be used to save time, money etc.

Another important point to think about is affiliate theft, which is very common. It is advisable to hide or cloak affiliate links to avoid this problem. There are several options available to cloak affiliate links, just do a search for affiliate link cloaking.

Choosing the right affiliate product to market is essential. Don't just select products, which may pay the most commission. It is important to see if the products are in demand, how easy will it be to promote?

The next step is promotion of the products. What are some of the best methods to use to find targeted traffic? It is advisable to use a combination of methods for quicker results. Apart from websites and blogs, what other options are there for promoting affiliate programs?

One of the quickest ways to get targeted traffic would be to set up a pay per click campaign. This requires careful thought if you have no experience using pay per click, but it offers a quick flow of traffic. There are various PPC options available.

Write a one-page report and sell it on Ebay. If done correctly this can result in a lot of traffic. Write a report explaining some problems faced by many people and then give the benefits of the products being promoted and include links of course to your sales page.