Affiliate marketing can be very rewarding if done properly. As you probably know by now, an affiliate earns commissions for promoting and bringing buyers to a merchant's website. It's really, a win-win situation: the merchant sells his products and the affiliate gets a fair part of the money for helping.

If you want to have a great success in affiliate marketing you have to follow some steps so that you do the right things in the right order.

Let's see the most important one that will help you start:

The absolutely most important thing you must do before even starting to promote a product is choosing a niche to focus on. Don't make the mistake of thinking that this is not important (like some affiliates do)!

If you are looking for real money from your affiliate business then finding the proper niche is vital for you! It's the foundation on which you will build your sky scraper!

Tip: When you start looking for your niche, ask yourself these questions:

What I'm I interested in? What do I like to do? What hobbies do I have? What things do I seem to be good or even great at? (it's no time to be modest, you know that there are things you do well and things you don't do so well - just write down the ones you are best at)

These questions will give you a big hand of help in your search for a suitable niche. Remember that if you like something, you will do it better, with pleasure and it might not even be so hard for you (while others may struggle at the same thing). What I'm trying to say here is, that there are people who don't know how to do the things you know and they are looking for help. You can be the solution to their problems!

When you find something you enjoy doing, like fishing, all you have to do is find a couple of affiliate programs that are serving this niche, give them a try and select the ones that have value. After that, you just promote those products and wait for the money to roll in!

Now, you might be a little scared of the competition. And you're right to be, because there probably are other affiliate promoting the same affiliate programs as you! But, you have nothing to worry about! Like

I said earlier, there are people who need your help, so, just put your personal touch into the promotion and differentiate yourself from anyone else! Tell people what you can do for them, what you are good

at and how can that be of help to them and they will pay you to give them a helping hand!

The bottom line is to be honest with people and really try to help them and as a result they will be glad to give you a reward (money) for helping!

The best of luck to you!