With affiliate marketing you are not so much trying to sell a product as to pre-sell a product.
 You want to provide a potential purchaser will lots of information about why they might need and want a certain product and why the product you are promoting is the solution they have been looking for to help them fix their problem.
 You can make money and help people with their problems at the same time.
You want to identify with your prospect and let them know that you understand their problem and pain.
 Be sure to describe the emotions involved whether it be excitement at overcoming a problem or relief from the pain or embarrassment their problem causes them.
 You want to mention the benefits of the product and how it can give them what they desire.
 It is helpful to give them a small taste of what the product can do for them by giving them some information that is helpful and related to the affiliate product but only so much as to make them even more interested in purchasing the product.
  People buy from people they know, like, and trust so it is helpful if you can give a personal story as to how the product has helped you or someone you know.
 I think it is usually a good idea to purchase any products you want to promote so that you can be authentic about which products you really think are worthwhile but it is not always necessary or possible.
Once you have your article, video or other content relating to your affiliate product you need a place on the internet to put that content so that people can find it.
 Your own blog or website is preferable but there are lots of other sites that you can and will want to use to help you with your affiliate marketing.
  Squidoo.
com is probably the easiest and most affiliate marketer friendly website to use to promote products.
 They allow you to create any number of lenses, which are simple webpages that utilize a module format so that you can add different content to your lenses from different sources.
 You can make money in addition to your affiliate commissions by placing Amazon, eBay and other modules on your Squidoo pages.
 They also let you share in some of the ad profits and give you the ability to donate some or all of your earnings to charity as well.
Hubpages.
com is another free resource to help you create hubs or webpages that relate to your affiliate product or offer.
 They are a little more strict about the number of links and amount of promotion used but they can get your content ranked highly in the search engines for maximum traffic, exposure and sales.
 They also have a feature where you can share in the revenue from the ads on your hubs.