Well we've all been there! Or at least I know I have. I joined my first affiliate program about 18 months ago and thought "this is it!" - I confidently expected the cash to start rolling in within hours.

Why the confidence. Well I'd just signed up with one of the top 10 affiliate programs (according to it's promotional page!) and had also signed up with Google Adwords - so all I'd done was put up an ad and a few keywords. How easy was that? And now I just needed to wait for the avalanche of customers clicking on my ad and sending my affiliate sales counter into meltdown.

Ummmmmm.....

It didn't work.

What?

I couldn't believe it. I had the expected stampede of "customers" but no sales. It was my Google Ads cost that went into meltdown! I was dumbfounded. What had gone wrong? Perhaps this whole thing about making money online with affiliate programs was a load of hyped up rubbish anyway. Yes that must be it. I knew it was too good to be true. Huh. To think I'd fallen for that.

But somehow I had this nagging feeling - it should work. Why didn't it? It seems so logical. Put up an advert to attract people who want to buy a product they are already looking for. I must be able to do that!

So for some reason, even though I'd started disastrously, I jumped into my "learning phase". Something by the way I never got out of. I was and still am a knowledge junkie. I devoured e Books and websites written by people who seemed to know what they were doing. And you know what? There's more to this than joining a top 10 affiliate program and putting an advert up.

Actually you can definitely make a GREAT income doing just that - but it is a lot more subtle than I'd thought. It is however something that anyone can do with the right attitude. By that I mean you must be prepared to learn your craft. Invest in your business and your future. Treat it as a business and it will reward you many many times over. But treat it as a money for nothing, get rich quick scheme and you WILL fail.

Some of the best books I read were Google Cash by Chris Carpenter, Affiliate Money Tree by Mike Delrue and The Definitive Guide to Adwords by Perry Marshall.

As I developed my income I found that after a while I just knew what products would sell and that I didn't need the top 10 affiliate programs - in fact I could make more by promoting less well known ones.

I also found better ways than placing pay per click ads - though this is easy money once you've learned the tricks of the trade. My best advertising is now totally free! (For details see below)

Here's to your success in affiliate sales - if I made it - so can you!