What sort of things do I mean? A strategy is not what you do day-to-day, but it is where those things are leading. Before you can have a strategy of any type, you need to have a goal of where you want to be, and what you want your business to be. For example, where do you see your business in five years time? And in one year's time? These are crucial things to brainstorm.

You might think that it is enough to try to make a reasonable income from affiliate marketing, but that is vague, and will not encourage to strive for your goals. Once you have set your goals, preferably one for one year, another for two years, and then one for three years, you are ready to think about strategies.

The strategies are what you get you to your goals, and you use tactics, like advertising and article writing to get there. Other tools you will probably use are autoresponders and websites, but they are only tools, not strategies.

Start with a goal then decide on your strategies

Let's say that your goal is to generate an income of $50,000 a year from affiliate marketing in two years. The first part of your strategy is to work out how many commissions you need to get to achieve that goal. You will soon find that it is quite a lot.

However, if you build a list of say, 1,000 people who respond to your offers, which can still be affiliate products, you will find it much easier to achieve that goal. For example, if 10 per cent of your list buy something through you every month, you could quite easily generate an extra $25,000 a year. Now, your direct earnings from affiliate income need be only half of what you would need without a list.

Once you realise that, you would probably decide that one of your strategies for achieving your goal would be to build a list. To do that, you would need an autoresponder, which would be the tool that helps you make that strategy work.

You might also decide that you would need to build not one but maybe ten websites to allow you to market in enough different market niches to achieve your goals. This, too, would be a strategic move because it is not essential for conventional affiliate marketing.