It seems there is no shortage of multi-level matrixes and free affiliate programs and gifting programs. It is interesting to me how these programs promise so much money and also how they focus on the get-rich-quick theme.

I am a firm believer that when you are looking to see what works, you have to look at those who are making money, who are successful, and see what they do. Not necessarily, what they say they do, but what they really do.

I have seen two things online that seem to make money, when they are applied correctly. 1) A person writes an ebook about something he (or she) has specialized information about and others might want, and promotes it to the "right crowd" and 2) A person gets good at promoting other people's products online.

Obviously the hardest thing to do is to write your own ebook and start selling it, especially if you are just getting started. So I recommend the following strategy:

Start by selling other people's products, and while you are selling their products and learning the ropes of selling online, begin creating your own product.

How do you start selling other people's products? First, you must determine what products are good and which aren't (because you don't want to promote products that don't work). Second, you must determine which products pay and which do not. Not only do you have to look at the commission amount per sale, but also the probability that you will get paid. Now, the only sure way to find out for sure is to send some traffic to someone's site and see what happens. Third, you must get the word out that you have quality information and quality links for people to go to.

Let's go through each of these one by one. How do you determine which are good and which aren't? The best way to do it is to buy the product. Read it, try it out, see if it is worth what you paid for it and ask yourself if you could honestly promote that product. If it is everything the sales page promised it to be, then it has passed the first test.

How do you determine what pays (and if you really get paid!)? First, to determine what it pays, click through to the affiliate section of the web site and you should be able to see what it pays. Deciding if it really pays is a tougher issue. See if you can find complaints online. Keep in mind, everyone tends to get a few complaints, especially if they are doing much business at all. So read the complaints, and get a feel for the company. Just don't shy away because of one or two complaints. The next thing you should do is start by promoting several products at one time. If you have done your research correctly, at least some of them should pay like they say they will. Once you have established kind of a 'benchmark', how much you make per lead you send them, you can simply stop promoting the ones that convert fewer of the leads, and add in new affiliate programs to replace them. Although it may be slow-going at first, once you get a stable of good strong companies for which to sell, it will be well worth the time.

While you are promoting other people's products, start producing your own. There are plenty of good resources online that can teach you how to do that and give you great ideas. Once you have your product and sales page generated, start rotating it in with your affiliate links. If at first it doesn't sell well, you may need to tweak your sales page. Remember, it probably won't perform as well as your affiliate sites at first; they have had more time to perfect the sales page.

Now get to work! Your dream of an online business really can come true, you just have to work at it!