In light of the recent economy there are quite a few people now looking for extra income. There is no better way to make extra money than getting into an affiliate marketing opportunity. There is probably no online business opportunity today that is more viable than joining an affiliate program or two.

There are some online marketers that are making an absolute killing with their affiliate marketing opportunity, the question is can you duplicate what they are doing?

Affiliate marketing does work as long as you realize that you are not going to get rich overnight. To be a successful affiliate marketer you need to keep your focus and stick with it. Find a successful affiliate marketer and just duplicate what he/she has done, that is really the big secret behind affiliate marketing.

Here are some basic rules to apply:
1) Only choose up to three programs to promote at any one time.
2) You are not the seller but, the pre-seller. The merchant sells.
3) You should be building a list as you promote your affiliate product.

To have a successful affiliate marketing opportunity there are 3 elements that need to be in place.
One: A simple but captivating direct response lead generation page. Two: An autoresponder pre-loaded with quality content
Three: A "Thank You" page which redirects to the affiliate product sales letter. Many marketers, especially affiliate marketers make the mistake of bypassing the lead capture generation. If you do you will leave a lot of money on the table.

Basically you send traffic to your lead capture page, then once the sign up for your sales list you send them to the affiliate sales page. This is there first exposure to the affiliate product you are promoting. But, now you have them on your list and can sell and build a relationship with them over and over again. It can take an exposure of 7 times before a customer may purchase your product. So be patient.

There you have it in a nutshell how an affiliate marketing opportunity can work for you and make you a steady income. The key is staying focused and stick with it and realize that it takes some time to build a business even online.