That's how it works for most people starting out but it doesn't need to. Getting affiliate marketing training can reduce the learning curve and get you making money way faster than doing it on your own. Trust me. I learned the hard way.

My first try several years back seems comical now. I bought my first product from a guy offering a bunch of bonuses and promising I would make a fortune. I quickly read through the guide and put together my first campaign. What a disaster. I only lost $100 bucks but the experience was frustrating. Knowing what I know now, the advice was just bad.

After that experience, I was frustrated and tried several more times without success. A couple of years ago I got interested in affiliate marketing again. I was talking to an online friend about it and he started to share the benefits of a full blow affiliate marketing training program. Wow! The light bulb went off in my head. I immediately started.

Now that I have been part of a successful training program, I am amazed at the success I have by just being taught the basics and following along. I believe anyone can do it if you are provided with the right tools.

You might be wondering what does training include?

Typically a good training program will provide the following:

An active community where you can ask questions, share ideas and get good advice for success. A good forum should be private to just members as it makes the contributions much more valuable than a public forum. One other major benefit with a private forum is people share what they are really doing such as examples of their sites, successes and failures. In a public internet marketing forum, I think 90% of what people say is not necessarily the truth or as easy as they try to make it sound.

A training program that is easy to follow and builds on your learning each week until you become advanced. The training program should be controlled so you are not just given a bunch of material and then on your own. I really like a program that gives you a little at a time. Feeds you enough info to digest, master and then moves on to the next important topic. A poor training programming will dump everything on you and have you going in 10 different directions. It's just setting you up for failure.

A set of tools that save you time and money. Common tools include keyword research, site builders, finding profitable niches and sorting out different affiliate offers. With the advent of Web 2.0, gadgets are the hot thing. A training programming should use gadgets so you can customize your dashboard to see just the items that are important to your success.

Well, I have covered all of the major points of affiliate marketing training. The decisions you make early will determine how quickly you are successful and may also make sure you don't quit too soon.