Is affiliate marketing hard? On the surface it is simply a process whereby you get paid for selling another person's product. This article takes a look at answering this question.

Now there's a few differing opinions about this. One "guru" was recently claiming that affiliate marketing was a waste of time. Mind you he had a monetary reason for saying that - but those details are for another time.

Let's be up front. Being an affiliate is not as easy as a lot of people say it is. There are various reasons for that but the 'biggie' is that most people don't know how to correctly sell anything on the Internet.

You know, you would think that affiliate marketing would be a breeze considering that you are supplied with just about everything you need. You don't have to keep an inventory of the products. You are given the sales websites. All the promotional material is given to you. All payments are collected for you. You even have all shipping of the product done for you.

So what's difficult about all that?

Well, here's the hard part. You've got to get the traffic to your website or sales page before any sales are made which means that your site has to be search engine friendly.

And there is one thing that seems certain - Search Engines don't like cloned websites.

They think they're trash and as such consign them to the trash can. Now if you are in a popular affiliate program then you will be competing with thousands of others who all have the same cloned website that has been provided by the merchant.

Here's where you have to get smart. You have to design your own website or sales page. That way the Search Engines won't trash you.

This will also give you a platform from which to pre-sell the product. You can do this best by relating your own personal experience with the product.

Now I can't force you to go out and buy every product that you want to sell but I can tell you this. The buying public is becoming increasingly sophisticated and smart - they'll probably spot false enthusiasm. You'll be far more believable if you've actually had some experience with the product.

So, design your own site or sales page, use the product and pre-sell from personal experience.

OK, what's meant by pre-sell?

Because you are probably not going to make a sale first up. Research suggests that people seldom buy on their first visit - some suggest it could take 7 visits. That's why your site or sales page must include a sign-up form. If you don't have a sign-up form you won't be able to follow them up. You see, even if they don't purchase from you this time, they could still be future customers providing that they have opted in.

However, once you get all this set up, you are still not guaranteed success. To be successful you will have to learn traffic generating skills. Very simply put, if you do not get enough qualified visitors to your website or sales page you will never sell enough products to be successful.

Seem like a lot of work?

Well if you were to go out and start an off line bricks and mortar business you would have a lot of work as well. Take a McDonalds franchise. The day you open the doors you will likely be over $1 million in debt. With the pressure that brings you'll find yourself working 15 hours a day, seven days a week.

OK, is affiliate marketing difficult? Well yes, but only because there is hard work involved in any business start up. But your start up costs will be virtually nothing compared to a traditional business PLUS the rewards can be substantial.