I recently received an email from one of the so called internet marketing gurus stating that Affiliate Marketing is not a Real Business. He went on to take the position that if you are involved with affiliate marketing, you are not a real business person or entrepreneur because you are selling digital products authored by other people. In his opinion, the fact that you are not the author of the product you are selling means you are not a real business person.

I take exception with his position. If his position were valid many small businesses such as the local convenience store, shoe store, greeting card store, etc. would not be considered real businesses because they do not manufacture the products they sell. In fact large retailers such as Sears and Wal-Mart would not be considered real businesses because they do not manufacture the products they sell.

There is only one problem that I recognize in affiliate marketing and that is the fact that most people who get involved in affiliate marketing are not seasoned business professionals and they do not understand the basic principle of business. That does not mean they are bad people or stupid. What it means is that they have never been properly trained in running a business.

To be successful in the affiliate marketing business or any other business requires the person entering that business to have a clear understanding of the business they are entering. One way to do this is to model other successful business people who are running the same type of business they are setting up.

When starting an Affiliate Marketing business, don’t rush into it, slow down and do your homework. Don’t believe these sales letters you read where the person says that he made thousands of dollars overnight. Now I’m not saying that they did not make thousands of dollars overnight but what are they not telling you? They are not telling you what they did before they made that type of income. You can bet money on the fact that they did a lot of research into the business of affiliate marketing and into the market they were selling to. They did not just wake up one day and in a couple of hours put a program together, designed a web site, uploaded it to their web server and started the money flow of thousands of dollars the next day. This just does not happen!

In my opinion, Affiliate Marketing is one of the best businesses you can get involved in. It is a business open to everyone, no matter what your financial situation is. You just need to do your homework before launching your business.

One suggestion I would make is for you to check out a number of the many online forums discussing Affiliate Marketing. Just do a Google Search for “Affiliate Marketing Forums". Take a week or two logging onto these forums and follow the progress of others. Then select a couple of forums that you feel provide you with the information you are looking for and join them. You will find some awesome people on these forums who are more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Just one thing…. Make sure that you have read through other postings on the forum regarding the question you have in mind before you ask your question. The majority of the time you will find that someone had the same question and the answers to that question are already posted. You can also ask members of the forum to direct you to additional information on the subject you are researching. If you follow these tips, you will find your experience on these forums to be exceptional!