Internet marketing is an incredibly vast subject. Figuring out ways to utilize the internet to send traffic to your website or affiliate link can feel like a very daunting task for the new internet marketer. If you are just starting out do not try to overcomplicate things. Do not bite off more than you can chew. Take it slowly and master one technique at a time. Too often people will jump from one marketing method to another without really taking the time to learn what they are doing.

Some of the most basic things that you must master are:

1. Blogging (for affiliate marketing)

2. Article Marketing (Writing an article for the web is not the same as writing for print!)

3. Pay Per Click (Adwords, Yahoo, Miva, etc)

4. Video Marketing (YouTube, Revver, etc.)

If you are really serious about building an internet marketing business you also should learn about Squidoo and how to build great lenses, social bookmarking, and how to leverage free blog sites to generate free traffic to your personal website. Pick one affiliate marketing method on the list above and take the time to learn everything about it before you move on to another. Patience is the one characteristic that most new marketers lack. Everyone wants to make a quick buck on the internet, on I understand this, I wanted to make a fast buck when I started out as well. Impatience however will just cause you to lose out on tremendous profits in the end.

Every tactic mentioned above is aimed at the same thing: Generating a steady stream of traffic for your web sites. If you do not have traffic you cannot have an internet marketing income!

The first thing you need to do if you truly desire internet marketing or affiliate marketing success is to learn. Read everything you can about this business. There is a lot of good information available, much of it for free. Just browse around the various article directories and marketing websites on the internet and you will find all the information you need to get started.

There are a lot of internet marketing and affiliate marketing “gurus” out there who all want to sell you something. Many of them have excellent information that you really should purchase to help you jump start your business, however it's important to carefully evaluate their claims and avoid getting caught up in the hype. There is no shortcut to success. Remember that. It takes time and effort to succeed at affiliate marketing. Many people give up because they bought into the hype of some program and forgot that success comes hand in hand with hard work.

Everything we do in life takes time and effort in order to succeed. There are certainly methods out there that will allow you to make an internet marketing income fast, but even they will require you to put in a certain degree of effort in order to be successful.

Remember there are many paths you can take to build a profitable affiliate marketing income. Just be willing to put in the effort required to make the path you choose work.