Affiliate marketing sounds good: sell goods and services created by other people and get a commission when a sale is made.

But can you really make money with affiliate marketing?

Like most things on the internet, the answer is “probably yes” but you need to have things in place to be able to stand the highest chance of earning some extra cash.

And let’s start with that – how much money are you hoping to make?

Because the answer to that question will affect what you do to attract affiliate sales.

There’s a world of difference between aiming to make a relatively low amount of money each month (maybe hundred or two hundred dollars) and an income replacing amount of cash.

So figure out your cash target from affiliate marketing.

Sure, in theory any amount of money can be made. Supermarkets make a lot of money from selling low ticket items – but they need a wide range of goods that are bought regularly for that to happen.

A lot of affiliate products are either one-off purchases or you get quietly cut out of the deal on subsequent sales – Amazon is good at that, you’ll get commission for up to 24 hours from the click you generate, then that’s it.

Think about recurring commission products

They’re not as easy to find as one-off commission products and they don’t exist in all markets.

But if you can even find just a few of them, they can help to smooth over the income peaks and troughs.

For instance, AWeber regularly send me money related to sales I helped them make over the years. People stay with autoresponder services a long time as they’re an essential part of a lot of internet marketing businesses.

iWriter are similar in that I get commission as long as the person I introduce stays on their site. But most people don’t order articles like clockwork so the money comes in fits and starts.

Think about the purchase life cycle.

It’s worth doing that when you’re researching your niche but before making the final decision.

Think about what people buy – is it likely to be an intermittent or one-off purchase?

Or is it likely to be a more regular purchase where you can get extra sales?

In and of themselves, both types of product can be profitable.

You need to decide which you’re more comfortable promoting?

For instance, if the idea of building a list and sending emails to people excites you then choose a niche where people spend money on a regular basis.

That could be a sport you enjoy, a hobby, health or fitness, or something like dating (a crowded but potentially profitable market).

Choose a niche you’re comfortable with

If you’re old enough to be their grand parent then it’ unlikely you’ll gel with a youth-orientated product.

Likewise if you’ve not long left school there’s not too much chance of you connecting with the silver market.

Sure, they’re profitable for affiliates.

But they’ll be a lot more profitable for you when you choose a market you’re comfortable with.

Decide how you’re going to tackle the market

That has a lot of bearing on what you create.

If you like creating videos, make YouTube your focus.

You might even decide to just have a YouTube channel instead of a website although I’d caution against that as it puts your money making activities in the control of something that you’re not in control of.

You can still host videos on your own site as well as YouTube and there are other sites available including ones like Vimeo that offer a paid-for video hosting option.

Just a thought.

My personal preference is to create my own website.

Hosting is relatively cheap.

WordPress works well and is fairly easy to install. And once you’ve installed it, you can keep your site up to date almost as easily as using a word processor.

Short term, you probably won’t make much money from your affiliate marketing.

That’s just the way the web works unless you’ve got spare money available to spend testing paid for adverts. And even then I’d suggest trying to test for free so that you don’t end up spending cash on a dud that doesn’t convert.

With time, effort and patience it is definitely possible to make money with affiliate marketing.

If you’d like to short-cut the learning curve involved (and, yes, there is a learning curve) then check out this page.