Affiliate Marketing is the easiest and most profitable online business if the right techniques are applied. I have seen hundreds of people fail at affiliate marketing simply because they are not applying the proper techniques. I am guilty of this until I discovered the secret codes to effectively apply simple techniques that transformed my business.

In 2004 I was laid off from my employer of six years and was struggling financially. After months of struggling to keep a home for my family, I began searching online for a legitimate business to help compensate for my lost income. That's when I discovered affiliate marketing.

Over the next several years I must have become a member of hundreds of affiliate programs. I spent countless hours and money working many nights until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning marketing these programs to only see minimal results. To say the least I was becoming very discouraged. I told myself I would continue 6 more months before giving up. One night I ran across a website talking about simple techniques if applied can transform your business and cut your marketing effort by 50%. Over the next several months I began applying these techniques and could not believe the results I was having. I finally cracked the affiliate marketing code!

I could not believe how simple these few techniques were. Not only was I making much more money but I was only working a couple hours a day and achieving 1000% more reward for my efforts!

I have listed each requirement below to become truly successful as an affiliate marketer. I will discuss each one further as we continue.

1. Create a Business Plan 2. Get Your Own Website and Domain Name 3. Setup Email Auto Responders 4. Only Join Affiliate Programs That Pay Top Commission 5. Pick only 4 to 6 Affiliate Programs to Market 6. Duplication - Teaching others

Create a Business Plan You MUST create a business plan so you keep focused and moving closer to your goals. This has to be one of the biggest reasons why so many people fail to make serious money online. They get caught up in all the hype of making $10,000 a month if you join this program or that program and have no direction or focus spending their hard earned money on techniques that fail to produce real results.

You need to set achievable goals each day of the week to give you a clear step by step system to properly market your business.

Example: Monday - Write two articles to submit to Article Directories. Tuesday - Submit Ads to Classified Ad web sites Wednesday - Submit ads to Ezines Thursday - Send email to your opt-in list Friday - Linking your website to other website

Get Your Own Website & Domain Many affiliate companies provide you with your own website to help market their products or services for free. So you may be asking "why would I need my own website?" The affiliate websites have your membership code attached in the address. Most search engines such as Google will not rank these. This is a huge problem due to everyone uses search engines to locate information online. It is imperative that you get listed on search engines.

In order to do this you will need your own website and domain name. Setting up a domain name and website is very inexpensive these days and you can be up and running in no time. Search engine ranking it one benefit but more importantly you have the flexibility to design and advertise whatever you want. This is very important. With your own website you can market all your affiliate programs and capture visitors name and email address through subscription offerings. Subscription offering is one of the most important elements to your website. If you are to be successful in affiliate marketing, you must capture your visitors name and email address. This can be done through offering free e-books, software or newsletters for signing up. Now you have a list of people that have opt-in to receive emails from you so you can market to. Do you see the potential here?

Setup Email Auto Responders Auto Responders follow-up with your customers by sending them an email when they sign-up for your newsletter or you may setup a marketing campaign to email every couple of days. The power behind auto responders is that they are fully automated once you set them up. This greatly reducing your work load and effort as now you no longer have to send emails out each day to your prospects or customers. Auto responders are extremely powerful and will greatly reduce your workload. They even work for you while you are on vacation!

Only Join Affiliate Programs Offering Top Commission The amazing part about affiliate marketing is that many companies offer 60-80% share of the profit. Yes, companies are willing to pay you huge commission just for making a sale. This is one of the keys for being successful as an affiliate marketer. You must pick the correct companies that provide the best value. For example, there is one affiliate program I do very well with called SFI Marketing.

Through the same techniques I will share with you I send hundreds of people to that website and many sign up for their FREE membership due to the value and great service offered. SFI offers products, training, your own websites and everything else required to market their product and services to produce a handsome monthly income. They also offer one of the best commission payment plans available!

Sounds crazy and unbelievable right...well it's NOT! Becoming an affiliate for a top company such as SFI has its rewards. They do all the hard work like stocking products, customer service, shipping, etc. and pay you 60-80% commission once a sale has been complete by simply sending traffic to their websites. That's it!

This is why affiliate marketing is the best way to make money online. If you are committed and willing to spend time working your business then you are on the right path for sure success. Mindset is everything.

Choosing the RIGHT programs is critical if you are going to succeed. There are thousands of affiliate programs online but they don't all work the same. The fact is you can apply the same techniques and energy in one program and as you did another and earn hundred times more. Picking the Right programs is a MUST if you are going to succeed in affiliate marketing.

Pick only 4 to 6 Affiliate Programs to Market I have seen too many websites fail due to having too many links, banners and other offerings on their website. Not only does this give your website an unprofessional image but also projects a lack of success creating doubt in your visitors.

Your goal is to join and market only 4 to 6 top affiliate programs. This not only creates a sense of trust with your visitors but also allows you to focus more effort to each one.

Duplication I learned several years ago that in order for you to succeed in affiliate marketing you must be able to teach others to duplicate your efforts. Using the power of leveraged income is an extremely powerful thing. Your affiliates that signup under you may have no idea where to begin and will give up if they feel alone. If you can show them step by step your techniques and provide them with a plan, both YOU and your affiliates will profit from your efforts. It's a win-win for both parties.

Now you have a better understanding and are armed with the tools needed to become an affiliate master, go and starting creating those HUGE commission checks.

Mike Ingles has helped hundreds of affiliate marketers transform their business by applying tools and techniques that he uses every day. Helping people succeed online is his mission. You can find additional information at Receive Free Top Affiliate Programs