First, you'll need to understand that for the business owner, affiliate programs are free marketing tools, giving them extra business without any major upfront costs. Being performance-based, affiliate marketing programs are very easy to offer and there can only be profit by bringing in as many affiliates as possible. As an affiliate marketer, however, your income is in generating sales.

So it comes back to identifying who your audience is going to be. Find your target audience, who your potential shoppers are going to be. These are the people you want to attract to your site.

To get them to visit, you have to offer them what they want. Choosing an affiliate program because it promises high commissions is no good if you don't have anyone visiting your site and making a purchase.

You need an affiliation program that relates to your interests, pays a good commission, and has a good reputation, good marketing materials, all tuned to attract the buyer! Sometimes, even if you earn less per sale, with sheer volume of targeted traffic, you might earn a lot more than you would have if you were selling a high priced product. The more targeted your leads, the more money in your pocket.

Don't go in for an affiliate program that does not offer the buyer a good deal. Make a comparison of commission structures, and look for affiliate marketing programs that have a good record of conversions into sales and quick payments. You will find it easier to push an affiliate program with good commission structures and fast conversion rate. And of course, at the end of the day, you want to get paid!

How many programs should you begin with? That is a great question, you can try a couple different strategies here. You can begin with trying out as many good programs as you can promote. If you are able to generate a lot of traffic on your website, you can have many affiliate programs running, and as a result you can get rid of the ones that aren't converting into sales. To know how well a program is performing however, you must give it a fair chance. You need patience and give it reasonable time to work.

Now to avoid getting overwhelmed right from the beginning, you can just focus on one program or product. This may be the way to go, simply because you can track one product easier than you can track six or seven. Also, if you give your customers too many choices, they too might become overwhelmed and not know which decision to make, and therefore they would probably just exit your site without buying anything. Simplicity is a great thing in affiliate marketing.

One very important thing to remember is to read the fine print in the affiliate terms, you want to know exactly what you are getting yourself in to, and whether or not you will gain from that affiliate relationship.

If you do all this in the beginning, then your foundation for success should be well set, and then you will be ready to build your business into a money making machine!