I have been asked this question on a number of occasions and it’s no surprise to me that the general consensus would be a loud “NO”, given that we are told that approximately 95% of Affiliates never make any money. But the answer is "YES". Why?……… So many people go into Affiliate marketing in the same manner – ‘Hell for leather’ – without stopping to think that they may need to do a little planning, give a little thought to how they are going to go about it and in doing so, give themselves a reasonable chance of success.

Some who already have a website, regardless of what it may be about, can tend to go madly signing up for numerous Affiliate programs or joining one or more of the larger Networks and plastering their website with banners, images and text with no thought as to whether the products they are trying to ‘flog’ actually have anything to do with the theme of their website. I have actually seen a website about ‘teenage pregnancy’ with an Affiliate coded banner for Viagra! I’m sorry, but is it me, or is that ridiculous?

Others will get themselves a domain name and a hosting deal and go merrily about creating a website literally ‘packed’ with all manner of products. Sometimes so many that they have to be catalogued and listed under their completely unrelated headings. Some of these website are extremely well designed and put together, but where’s the content, where’s the reason for people to visit? You can also forget about targeted traffic from Search Engines. You’ll never get a Search Engine listing of any consequence without content and some kind of form and theme to your website.

We’ve all seen the ‘Price Comparison’ websites, and I can’t help wondering how merchants view such websites, given that they are promoting a product solely on the basis of it’s price. Please, I mean no specific disrespect to anyone who may have such a website, in fact I once did, before I decided to get serious by finding out how to go about it correctly. Some Affiliate programs and merchants are now excluding these types of website.

There are those that announce they have ‘scoured’ the Net for the very best of a particular product and are presenting it to the consumer to save them the time and trouble. Apart from the fact that people like to do their own ‘scouring’, they may also not be able to help wondering exactly how much has been done. I take my hat off to the Affiliate who has located, ordered and paid for, then tried and tested a number of products simply so he can recommend the best one in each category.

The Internet is full of these attempts at Affiliate Marketing. The ‘Affiliate or Banner Farms’, the ‘Price and Comparison Websites’ and the websites containing advertisements for totally unrelated products and services are everywhere.

Of course Affiliate marketing can pay and it can pay well for those who do their ‘homework’ and formulate a valid strategy. Those who decide to plan, promote, present, and purvey (my four P’s), before charging headlong into a waste of time and sometimes money, can actually fulfill their dream of making a living from their home.