I came to these forums because of pay per download, but i seen this affilate thing. I really want to give it ago, i have a fair bit of time on my hands, and I want to try to make this work, I have read alot of succes on these forums. I hope one day i can make something out affilate. I just really need to know the basics? where to get started? should i make my own website? how to find a niche? Please could someone shoot me some ideas on how to get rolling.
Basic affiliate marketing can be summed up like this: 1. Find a product to market. This can be pretty much anything, but Clickbank or Commission Junction are good places to start (for Clickbank, look for products in an niche you know something about and sort it by gravity). When you sign up you can get a URL to advertise that you will get paid for if someone buys something through your link. 2. Decide what strategy to take. Two of the most common are simply pointing adword ads at your URL or creating a one-page landing page where you can pre-sell the item by discussing it yourself and encouraging them to purchase it. You then include a link to it. (As another possibility, try to get their email on the landing page and then email them directly over a longer period of time with free info and -- every so often -- an affiliate link to something). 3. Onward (war cry here)! Go get your hands dirty, try it out. You'll make mistakes, but keep asking questions and you'll figure it out and start getting your own personal style going. Don't forget to try to use other sites to help get traffic to either the URL or a landing page, such as the one in my signature.
The steps listed by Submerged are pretty well explained. If you're looking for a very detailed step-by-step guide of what you need to do your best bet would be to google the information or buy an ebook from the buy/sell/trade board. Personally I'd go with google first until I learn the basics, then go with ebooks to learn about different techniques to market the products you're promoting.