Affiliate marketing is the first step for most people trying to make money online through Internet marketing. This isn't surprising, considering affiliate marketing can be started with no investment, no product of your own and even no website. As long as you have a computer and an Internet connection, you can start making money online through affiliate marketing.

I'm often asked why I recommend people new to Internet Marketing start their online businesses through affiliate marketing. For more help visit to:www.firesale-automator.com. There are a myriad of reasons, the most impotent few being a) One can start affiliate marketing investing only their time, not money, b) The affiliate marketing world provides the greatest variety of free training resources for learning the basics of all Internet marketing, and c) One can begin right now, today - no need to create or buy products, design or purchase a website, etc.

The simplest formula for starting your affiliate marketing business involves blogging, writing and submitting articles and using the Web 2.0 social bookmaking sites. Step one is to decide what area, or niche, you want to promote products to. It may be the Internet marketing arena, pets, children, sports enthusiasts, gardeners, the home improvement crowd, etc. for more help visit to:www.scroll-pops.com. While each of these areas is too broad to attack in whole, each has sub-niches with plenty of products for affiliates to promote. Once you settle on a major niche, look through the available affiliate marketing opportunities to see which sub-niche appeals to you AND has plenty of products for affiliates to promote. Chosen sports? Maybe you'll go after the golfing niche first, or tennis, or even skiing - each has plenty of products with affiliate marketing programs.

Next, write two or three articles on the topic - they can be brand new articles or modifications of the posts you made to your blog. Do not include any links in the article, as most directories will not accept articles with links in them. Instead, your affiliate marketing links go in your signature or Author's Box at the end of the article. Since most directories allow two or three links in that area, use one directly to your affiliate link and one to the blog you're writing for your affiliate marketing in that niche.

With a bit of practice it becomes a lot easier to research and write articles and blog posts on any subject, and your affiliate marketing efforts will kick it up a notch. Don't expect results from Day One, nor even to make any money in your first month at it - although it does happen sometimes. Instead, think of the growing collection of blog posts and articles you've submitted a 'paying it forward' - each of these affiliate marketing efforts will remain online for some time and provide a growing empire of online materials with your affiliate links in them, being seen by an ever-increasing number of people. It takes time for your writing to be indexed in major search engines like Google, and even longer for some of your posts to work their way further up the results pages.

As time permits, start to visit and participate in the affiliate marketing forums and Internet marketing forums as well - to find the best, do a quick search at Google and then visit the forums, paying attention to how busy they are and how many of the big names you recognize participating in them. Do a similar search for forums in the niches you're targeting too, such as 'dog forums' or 'golf forums', and start participating in those, answering questions whenever you can to help establish yourself as an expert in that niche. Again, don't blatantly advertise unless the forum rules specifically state that's acceptable - most don't allow it, and that's not your main reason for being there anyway. But DO put your affiliate marketing links to relevant products in the signature file at the end of each of your posts.