There are many books and articles about affiliate marketing, but I've never come across one quite like Affiliate "Project X". It presents step-by-step methods that complete newbies can use to become super affiliates within the span of a few weeks, if they're willing to work at it. Even seasoned pros can learn a few things from this book and significantly increase the money they make from affiliate selling.

Affiliate Project X was released with the usual fanfare for new affiliate products, with big-name Internet marketing pros promoting it to their mailing lists. I must admit that I ignored APX (as fans often refer to Affiliate Project X) at first -- I was sure it was just another ebook about affiliate marketing, no different than the dozens of other books I'd read before. The fact that it was released at the same time as a number of other products didn't help -- there were just too many products being promoted in the same month. But then I noticed a real buzz developing around Affiliate Project X, so I bought APX to see what all the fuss was about. If I didn't like it, after all, I could always take advantage of ClickBank's 8-week money-back guarantee and return APX for a full refund.

Unlike many other ebooks, Affiliate "Project X" uses a small (some would say normal-sized) font and standard margins, so it manages to pack a lot of information into its pages. It starts off with an introduction by the author, who also wrote AdWords Miracle, explaining why he wrote the book and how he tested the methods with some volunteers. As it turns out, those who actually made an effort and applied his methods were making between 50 and 200 dollars per day within two or three weeks of starting. Which is more money than many affiliates make per day on average.

The heart of the book is the set of six methods that the author uses for making money as a ClickBank affiliate, though most of the methods apply to other affiliate programs as well. The APX methods are:

The "Leech": The Art of the Pre-Sell The Affiliate Diary The "Workhorse" Method Thief in the Night Copy the Best, Part 2 The "Opportunist" Method

Each method includes very detailed instructions by the author on how to implement them. Included are tips on how to choose the right ClickBank products to promote (note that the really successful affiliates are always promoting multiple products) and what raps to avoid. Only one of the methods requires the use of a specialized tool, and some don't require any spending at all on your part -- just your time and effort.

Note that this is not an introduction to affiliate marketing. Readers of Affiliate Project X are assumed to know how to perform routine tasks such as uploading files to a website, creating "squeeze pages", and configuring autoresponders. This basic information is easily obtained on the Internet for free.

Affiliate "Project X" does provide some advanced tips on cloaking affiliate links (to make it harder to lose your commissions) and how to track where your sales are coming from. The book has been updated to include information about ClickBank's new tracking capabilities -- you can expect the material to stay current.

An important caveat: although the methods presented in Affiliate Project X can make you money quite quickly, especially when you factor in ClickBank's semi-monthly pay periods, they all require work on your part. Whether it's researching products, finding keywords, writing pre-sells and articles, or just copying what super affiliates are doing, you need to dedicate some serious time -- think two or three hours a day at first -- to successfully implement the methods he presents. Don't try to rush through or skip over any of the steps, otherwise you will fail. And you need to re-read APX several times to make sure you're doing everything the right way. But the author is very upfront about all of this, and also about the fact that failures will still happen on occasion. But when you succeed, the payoff will more than make up for the occasional disappointment of a failed promotion.

For me, the best thing about Affiliate "Project X" is that it's made me think about affiliate marketing in ways that no other book has. That alone is reason enough to buy it. The fact that it gives you all the details on how to make money as an affiliate is even more reason to purchase it. Affiliate Project X isn't a scam, it's a great guide to becoming a happy and successful affiliate marketer. Definitely a recommended buy.