So many people "miss the boat" when it comes to affiliate marketing that it is no wonder I hear complaints like "I'm not making any money" or "Why aren't my affiliate sales higher?" all the time. It seems that many people are under the misconception that affiliate marketing means no work and all profits. With so many so-called "gurus" showing off screen shots or scans of big commission checks you can hardly blame people for having these misconceptions. However, what they are not showing you are their business costs and the effort that they put into their businesses.

Affiliate marketing can truly be one of the most incredible business opportunities around. After all, here is a business model that does not require you to have your own product. It is also a business that can be stated with a small amount of money and return high profits. But, you need to carefully plan your strategy and choose the right products to promote in order to successfully generate an income as an affiliate.

The biggest misconception people seem to have is that affiliate marketing simply requires you to publish your affiliate link and you will earn a commission. Most frustrated Internet marketers fail to realized that just like any other business you must build a relationship with your prospect and keep sending your message to them over and over again. It has been estimated that it takes seventeen contacts with a prospect before he will make a purchase. If your business model consists simply of sending people to an affiliate link you completely miss out on this important relationship.

Instead, send your prospect to a specially designed web page that entices him to give you his name and email address. By adding your prospects to your newsletter you build a relationship and are able to continually sell them on the product you are promoting.

Yes, this technique is going to require additional effort on your part and yes it is going to cost you more to set up and maintain. However, your long-term results are going to be significantly better. Not only will you now have the opportunity to market your product over and over again, but you have qualified your prospects by making them demonstrate that they are actually interested in your product. Plus, the cost of continually marketing to this group is next to nothing since you have already captured their information and gotten their permission.

The other common misconception I see in new affiliate marketers is that the amount of work involved in promoting their product will be minimal. Advertising any online venture can be costly and time consuming. You simply cannot rely on search engines to drive traffic to your website. Instead you need to consider pay per click advertising, Google Adwords, ezine ads, traffic exchanges, article writing, and anything else you can come up with.

By combining a never-ending persistence when it comes to promoting your web page and using a lead capture page that ads prospects to your newsletter you can achieve a great deal of success as an affiliate marketer. But, do not be mislead by the hype and the so-called "gurus" out there that will fill your head with the idea that it is a get-rich-quick business. Affiliate marketing is a business like any other and when treated that way, with proper planning and persistence, will generate an income for you that you can be proud of.