There are many "best" ways One of them may be creating of comparison website and joining 10 - 20 affiliate programs in some niche. If you will be able to drive decent traffic on your website you can expect that affiliate managers will send you offers with higher commissions in exchange for exclusive placement of their links.
To some degree what's best could depend on the niche and/or the product you are promoting. I always suggest 1st picking a niche. Then pick the products that fit the niche. Then you can research the market to see what others are doing and find a way to do it better. Also put yourself in your prospective customer's shoes. If you were the customer what type of site would appeal to you??? Having said all that many affiliates choose to start with a Wordpress blog. It's free and easy. (Other than the cost of domain and hosting.)
Optimization page you put banner/code . Try to SEO that page to the top of search engine ( product must related with your content ) . Or using adwords if you want. !
It is so hard to answer questions like this. Is there really a best way, or does it just depend on how much time you have in, what work you enjoy doing and what your products and niche are. ONE of the best ways I think is to just find a product that sells itself. Too many people get focused on just getting a product to promote and SEO that they are stuck with a product from CJ that no one is really interested in. Find a product that works, that sells and do a pre-sell on it.
Well...Optimizing your website to get targeted traffic will take huge time. So, just choose your offer and create landing page, I will suggest you low competitive niche which will perform better. You can also try Google Adwords to drive some quick targeted traffic and can generate leads and sales. Thanks,
How do E-Mail / Newsletters work? And can someone verify whether it is ok to spread a link through word of mouth / to friends etc?
I think via email marketing will great way besided you need a website to promote, for adword... I don't think so coz it spend a money not make a money.. LOL
I am using wordpress with CJ , so far my earning is reaching $400- $500 per month. You would need to use some nice plugins and everything will work out for you