Affiliate marketing is similar to salesman who earns a commission every time he sells some one else's product. As an affiliate, you can also earn money from other people 's products. The difference between online and offline world is, you can collect huge amount of customer list faster online if you do it properly. And the best part is, you don 't need to visit strangers door-by-door. For some people, it 's an easier way and also a better chance to make a fortune.

There are simple steps for you to get started with affiliate marketing:

1. Find a profitable market. You can simply check the market profitability by visiting ebay.com, amazon.com, and browse the category you like. Another way you can do is using a free keyword research tool to check if the market is hungry enough for information that people search *online*.
2. Find a hot, in-demand product to your market. You can find an affiliate product by browsing popular affiliate network like cj.com, clickbank.com, paydotcom.com. Check out the sales page, and see if they convince you. Make sure the product 's profit margin is high enough. You don 't want to take huge amount of efforts then only get 5 dollars a sale.
Know the best program and products to promote. Obviously, you would want to promote a program that will enable you to achieve the greatest profits in the shortest possible time.

3. Write free reports or short ebooks to distribute from your site. There is a great possibility that you are competing with other affiliates that are promoting the same program. If you start writing short report related to the product you are promoting, you will be able to distinguish yourself from the other affiliates.

In the reports, provide some valuable information for free. If possible, add some recommendations about the products. With ebooks, you get credibility. Customers will see that in you and they will be enticed to try out what you are offering.
4. Create a squeeze page. A squeeze page is use for collecting prospects ' personal information. Then you can follow up them by sending follow-up email series. A well-designed squeeze page can convert well, and capture the real potential buyers ' information, instead of freebie seekers.
5. Create your first follow up email campaign. Use follow up email series to build relationship with your subscribers. What you do now is similar with off-line salesman, but you don 't need to personally call them or visit their house. As I mention before, online business is easier for some people, most people just don 't like to meet different people everyday. By using well-written follow up email series to build relationship with your subscribers, it could save your time and identify the qualify prospects.
6. Drive targeted traffic to your squeeze page. I recommend use article marketing and Web 2.0 site like Squidoo as your marketing tools. In this way, you can build FREE and long term web traffic. You can also practice your writing skills and test your marketing tactics. As a newbie to internet marketing, you should try and test for a period of time before you really make a fortune.