Running a business on a basis of trial and error is not conducive to the ultimate success of the business. Failures cost both time and money, and inevitably lead to a loss of motivation. Once the fresh enthusiasm wears off, the financial drain and lack of worthwhile reward lead to a loss of interest. All the ingredients are there for another home-business failure to add to the already bleak statistics.

Let us examine some of the reasons for this high rate of failure:

The most likely cause of failure is a lack of experience in business generally, but specifically in the vital techniques of internet marketing. Affiliate Marketing training, where offered, is largely self-conducted and cannot pretend to replace years of first hand experience.

Online training usually offers answers to some of the queries which crop up, but responses are often slow and tend to be generic. This leads to frustration on the part of the trainee as the solutions offered are seldom specific enough to be ideal.

It is ideal to find a mentor with a demonstrable track record in the business, in addition to some specific qualities:

- He/she should be personally involved in the specific business.

- Access should be readily but reasonably available.

- The mentoring offered should be specific to the business, rather than generic business guidance.

- The ideal is to have a team of mentors, with a range of specialised skills, and the capacity to share the load of incoming queries.

- Another extremely useful capacity would be membership of a specific forum where interaction with others can lead to mutual problem sharing and solution.

- The cost of the mentorship must be affordable.

A suggestion is to enquire about mentorship as an integral part of any proposed Affiliate marketing programme and to examine what is offered in association with the benefits of the programme itself. Some of the larger and more successful Affiliate Programmes available on the internet now have associated coaching/ mentorship programmes on offer at a very modest cost. Do some research - it will be worth the effort!