Porn? Yes, but there is a lot competition and it is a dirty business.

Develop your own software or ebook? Yes, but that takes expertise, time and money.

In my 8+ years online, the easiest and fastest way to start making money online is with da-da....AFFILIATE PRODUCTS!

What is an affiliate product?

Glad you asked :o) It is a product, software, ebook or service that the owner is paying you a commission to sell.

The commission can be per lead, (mainly mortgage, loan and insurance companies) pay per hit, pay per sale. This last type is what I like and you should concentrate on it as well.

How do you start?

Here are my easy steps to selling affiliate products.

1. Find a product

For informational type products (ebooks, software) most people go to Clickbank. They now have a search box that greatly helps finding a product in a category you are interested in. Most commission is 50%+ but the downside is that the sell price is usually low, $20-$50 with some at $97.00 (mostly software). But digital information products are still hot and easy to deal with as they don't require you to physically handle and ship as with eBay products.

Another place to go is Commission Junction www.cj.com They are a big affiliate program directory and you will have no trouble finding some great products to sell.

There is BeFree, Linkshare, LinkConnector and many others so do a Google search and take your pick.

What to look for in an affiliate and their products?

You want to get high commissions. As I said, 50% or more for informational type products and less for software and services like insurance, mortgages etc.

Look at their web site and see if it looks professional, is easy to find what visitors are looking for and navigate. Do they offer a newsletter and have a follow-up system in place so if your prospect you send there doesn't purchase the first visit, they will get periodic messages from a newsletter or report.

2. After you decide on an affiliate product, log in to their affiliate page and read what the product is about. You should purchase the product and use or read about it so you can speak from personal experience when you write your ads, reports or articles. But you don't have to. I don't always buy it, I read the testimonials and reviews to get an idea of what the product's benefits are to the customer. Get your affiliate link, banners, ads and other resources offered.

You should write your own ads, especially solo ads (they are sent to ezine subscribers by themselves thus are the best ezine advertisement). Why write your own ads? Think about all the other affiliates who just copy/paste the given ads and how diluted they become to the readers.

Nothing makes a better impression than someone's personal experience, review and opinion. You don't need to make it a long one, just a few paragraphs if its a solo, and of course shorter for top sponsor ads and signature ads.

3. Now that you have your promotional material, decide on the marketing plan. There are two ways to go...with money and without :o)

If your budget allows, the fastest way to see sales is by buying ezine ads. As said earlier, solo's are the most effective but also the most expensive. For a good newsletter, with a good open rate and readership of the ezine (ask the publisher what they are), expect to pay $2-$10 per M or 1,000 subscribers. The longer the wait for your ad to be published, usually shows that the ezine is popular with advertisers and repeat advertisers. I find one of the biggest mistakes advertisers make with newsletter is that they buy one ad, see an ok result and say, "that didn't work so on to something else". As you probably know, it takes multiple views of an ad before people react. That is why you see the same ad on TV, radio or in magazines. The promoter knows they need to get it in front the public at least 7 times before they see maximum results.

How to judge whether to buy multiple ads? If you at least break even after the first ad, put that money back into another ad. Vary the ad's copy but not too much. You also should not use your affiliate link, as many will steal your commission by removing your id and replacing it with their own.

An autoresponder needs to have a few essential features.

1. Be able to send personalized emails, usually the first name you have captured on the signup form. 2. A form and text link for subscription 3. Able to send in either text or html (most email accounts are able to open html but there are still a few that still use text. 4. Autoresponder messages. This is critical for automation. Plug in multiple messages and forget it. You can plug in a year's worth if you want and can write that many :o) 5. Ability to load a decent size database. Isoresponder allows you to upload 50,000 subscribers.

Now that you have picked your affiliate product, marketing plan and an autoresponder to send email messages, it's time to ACT!

Yes, this is where most affiliates fail. They just don't follow through. Time, money, family or outside job demands may be the culprit. Or fear of failing and in some cases, fear of success. It's a known fact that many people never reach their potential because they are afraid of success and what it means to them and their loved ones.

But take one step at a time. Set daily, weekly and monthly goals. Write them down and tack them up so you can easily see them. Just this step will make the difference between those who succeed and those who fail. Without specific goals, you are like a ship without a rudder...drifting aimlessly, never reaching your port. Therefore, your ship never comes in!