Sadly that does not have to be the case! Most people who fail at affiliate marketing do so not so much because they lack ability, but because they lack either knowledge or application. If you were to become an affiliate marketer who is determined to succeed, all you would have to do would be to learn four key things, and apply your knowledge correctly. Do that, and at the very least you could soon be earning a few hundred dollars a month.

So, what are the four key things that you should know about affiliate marketing in order to increase the amount of money that you make and avoid joining the 95% of losers?

1. Build your own quality website and then market it. Do not be a cheapskate and think you can succeed with a free website. Find a quality website hosting service and choose a .com name that reflects what it is that you sell. When you build your website (or have a someone build it for you) remember that it should capture your visitor's attention and provide useful information.

One problem many affiliate marketers have is that they falsely assume that graphics are the key to having a good website that captures people's attention. In reality your visitors do not really want to look it a bunch of pictures. What they want is to be able to find answers to their specific questions.

Therefore, if you can provide useful information that answers their questions, you stand a much better chance of making a sale for the product that you represent.

2. Master one form of traffic generation and do it over and over. Most affiliate marketers do not get enough quality traffic to their website to make any money.

It is a very competitive world on the Internet today and for you to stand out you need to be able to generate a lot of traffic every day of the week. There are many different ways to market online and it is easy to become distracted by trying to chase after too many methods at once. So in the beginning, focus on one method of traffic generation and become an expert at it. Mastering one marketing method at a time will be a huge factor in your success.

3. Choose only quality affiliate products to represent. There are a lot of poor products available to affiliates today, but you do not want to be the person who is trying to sell them. Instead, go for an affiliate company with a tried and tested track record and a lot of successful, happy affiliates.

What you are need to do as an affiliate marketer is to build up a positive reputation for yourself. So you only want to represent the highest quality products available. Online marketing is essentially about trust, so sell trustworthy products in a trustworthy manner and you will build your own success over time.

4. Find products that offer high commissions and focus on selling them. Although this is not the most important thing when it comes to choosing a product, it is important because you are doing this for money first, with "love" ideally coming a close second! Remember, you will not even make a couple of hundred dollars a month if you are not selling products that pay you well for your time.

These four essential considerations are overlooked by far too many people who try their hand at affiliate marketing. Without getting these right, we cannot even begin to discuss the details you should know about affiliate marketing strategy. However, once you have a quality website and have chosen good products that pay you well, then you must spend the majority of your time marketing your website.