If you are looking to make some extra money from the comfort of your home, then online affiliate marketing can be a perfect business model to get in to. It's easy to start and you don't need any products or services to sell straight away.

Affiliate marketing is where you promote other peoples businesses or products for them, in return you get a commission. A bit like an online salesman, and in some cases these commissions can be very lucrative if you know what your doing.

The 12 simple steps listed below are the foundations to what an affiliate marketer would do to get up and running. Follow these 12 basic steps and you'll have a good chance of making a good living from the internet.

Step 1 - Discover a good market:

If you've been in business before or just starting out, the chances are that you've heard the saying "find a hungry market and feed them with what they want". To become successful in this business or any business offline and online, you will have to become good at finding your "target market".

Step 2 - Mindmapping for ideas.

Chances are you've heard of this before, it's basically getting everything from your mind onto paper. Brainstorming all your thoughts on a few broad topics or services that you could sell. It's a good idea to chose topics that you have knowledge on or at least some interest in.

Step 3 - Fine tuning your topics:

You need to find between 3-5 topics which have a good following and have money. This is important, as you need to take in to consideration what type of people you are promoting your product or services to. Starting broad, say for instance "cars" then fine tuning it to a niche market "datsun 240z" get the idea.

Step 4 - Stuck:

If you are stuck for ideas, then a good place to start are online groups and forums.

Step 5 - Competition:

To get a good idea if your topic is a good one, you'll need to check out the competition. Don't be scared if there is a lot as this can be a good sign as it means there's money to be made. Take not on what your competition is doing and saying.

Step 6 - Find an affiliate product to promote:

Once you have found a niche you think is hungry for a certain product or service then search on Google for "your niche affiliate program". So in the example above it would be "datsun 240z affiliate program".

If you have a hard time finding an affiliate program for your niche, then it's probably a good sign that you've picked a dud. In which case move on to your other niches and do the same search on Google for them.

Step 7 - Landing page:

This is the platform you'll need to promote your product or service from. This can be a website, blog or a Squidoo lens depending on your skill level. If your a total newbie, then a blog is a good idea to get started or a Squidoo lens, both of which are free. If your feeling a bit adventurous then you can go to http://www.elance.com to have a site built for you, although I wouldn't do this until you know for sure your niche is a winner.

Step 8 - Creating your landing page:

It's very temping to slap links all over the place saying "click here!", "buy this!", so much so that your page is blue with links. Instead, treat it a bit like a review on the subject or niche you have chosen. Try to be as informative as possible without giving all the info, so as not to write the whole manual so to speak.

Step 9 - Add your affiliate links:

At the end of the day your here to provide a service, and if the customer likes what you have done then you can help them on their way. So make sure to put your affiliate link which you would have got from joining your chosen affiliate program, on your landing page. 3 links or less are usually recommended. You don't have to push the fact that they have to click the link, just introduce it in a casual way.

Step 10 - Traffic:

This is the big one, no traffic no sales. Article marketing is the free option and is still a great way to promote your niche. Writing articles can be a big task if you don't have much time, again elance.com is a good place to get your articles written for you. "word press" and "Squidoo" are often picked up by Google, and rank highly in Google search engine results. Pay per click (PPC) marketing using AdWords is another way, although i wouldn't recommend this at the beginning.

Step 11 - Tracking:

This becomes an essential part of the affiliate marketing business and should not be over looked. Knowing where your traffic came from and how many is important for you to fine tune your marketing so that your efforts pay off and you can then enjoy the benefits of being an online affiliate marketer. It may be slow at the beginning but if you stick at it and keep updating your "blog" or "Squidoo" page then you will see the returns in the end.

Step 12 - Tweaking:

Make sure you regularly update your blog, you don't have to do much just tweak it from time to time, adding good content and you'll be fine. If for some reason you find your getting the traffic but not the clicks to buy, then look at the placement of your links. Play around with you layout of your page until you see the sales go up. Learn to adapt. and you'll make sales.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article, hope you found it useful in someway in which will help you on your journey.

Cheers Rob Hughes