Throughout history, one of the most lucrative occupations has been that of a salesman. Buying and selling is what keeps any market anywhere in the world alive. Without it we won't have an economy, we won't have jobs and we probably won't have any food, clothing or any of life's little pleasures like iPod and DVD players. Exchanging anything of value always comes down to selling and even when you go for your next job interview you will be making a sales presentation to ‘sell' yourself.

Even though selling is one of the best paid professions in the world, I absolutely hate it. I hate selling people and I despise the idea of sucking up to people's ‘needs' just to be able to sell them something. Fortunately there is a great opportunity for those who hate selling but who to still want to tap into the world's oldest and most lucrative profession. The answer is affiliate web site marketing. As an affiliate you basically earn commission for directing visitors from your website to a merchant's site and when a purchase is made the merchant rewards you with a commission. The critical distinction to make with affiliate web site marketing is that you am not actually selling anything. You are only passing potential customers on to a merchant who is actually making the sale.

The great thing about affiliate web site marketing is that I get to promote only products that I really believe in and products that I really know. Although I hate selling I love helping people and with affiliate web site marketing I can get the best of both worlds: I get to earn money in a similar way as selling would earn me, but without selling a single thing. This simple fact is where most affiliate marketers fail online. They try to make sales. I believe that people are fed up with being sold. Everyday and everywhere we are being bombarded with people wanting us to buy stuff from them – it seems like everybody is trying to sell you something. Remember that when you are on the internet, people aren't looking to buy stuff as much as they are looking for answers to their question.

Online, people are looking for information on products and services, and when bombarded with ‘sales pitches' most people tend to just block out and move on. This is where affiliate web site marketing comes in. If you are an expert with the know-how on something, you can provide this information that people are actually looking for. As a convenience and service to your readers you can also direct them to the best possible resources for finding what they are looking for. This is when you get rewarded for your efforts. By nature people are ‘lazy' and they don't want to search 200 websites before they buy a new laptop. They want an honest, no fuss opinion on what's best for their specific needs.

As the expert you can provide this information to internet users and as a final courtesy you can direct them to the merchant who will eventually reward you when a sale is made. Affiliate web site marketing is all a numbers game and although commissions tend to be only a couple of dollars on a sale, when you multiply it by thousands it becomes more significant and with the amount of internet users reaching an estimated 3 billion, you can just imagine the future potential.

With affiliate web site marketing it is absolutely critical that you get the fundamentals right. Everybody who is successful at affiliate marketing, whether it be online or off line are practicing these three fundamentals.

1. Help Them, Don't Sell Them:

The purpose of being an affiliate is to provide information and to help people who are looking for information and experience that you have. People are fed up with being sold. Selling is based on your own interests in making more money. By helping people you have their interests at heart and as selfish as this might sound (although it isn't really) people only act on their own self interests.

2. Credibility Is Your Lifeline:

Building trust is your number one tool in affiliate web site marketing. When people start to trust your opinion to the point where they would ‘beg' to have your opinion…this is when your income as an affiliate becomes unlimited. If you ‘promote' a bunch of rubbish programs just to make a quick buck those who do heed to your advice will soon find out the truth and NEVER trust your opinion again.

3. Making Money Is A Result And Not A Goal

When someone is out to make money, it's so quite obvious in all their words and actions. Just walk into a car dealership and you will see what I mean. Most of selling these days are like that – people trying to make money. The paradox is that when you try to make money you rarely do. When you instead focus on the task at hand and doing it properly, then making money becomes ‘automatic' and it is merely the result of your efforts. When you do affiliate web site marketing, focus on your efforts of helping and sincere advising your readers and the money will follow.