Earning money through affiliate positioning is an attractive method for earning money primarily because it's like a crock pot meal.... You set it... then forget it.

You set up your website with all of your affiliate links and sit and wait for the cash to come rolling in.... Well, not really.... infact, few people will actually tell you how long you will have to wait for your money to come rolling in... Minimum 1 year. ... really.... However, the earning potential is high and provided you have planed your website and hosting plan properly... your website may actually be around in a year.... Ah But I digress. Let's setup your website.

You will need HTML software. I use Dreamweaver or Frontpage, because I'm a geek... Here's what you don't want... You don't want to purchase a website and hosting packaging that doesn't allow you to edit the HTML code.

There are a number of great free website hosting plans, but they don't allow you to enter any HTML code... and that's what you need for affiliate money. 

Don't get scared away... You won't have to come up with the HTML code... the affiliate programs give you the code... but you will have to have a method for putting it into your site.. the two software packages I mentioned, frontpage and dreamweaver allow me to do that.

Check out my latest site: www.sharpstarters.com

Click on any link... then look at the address bar.  The link you are clicking on was provided by the affiliate vendor as my personal click through.  That address has my personal code... so the more people that click through my adds the more chance I have of selling a product and earning a commission

Creating your own website requires 2 things.... A webhost... (that's basically someone to hold your website out there on the internet for you) and your domain. To use my example www.sharpstarters.com is a domain name

I use Godaddy.com and 1and1internet.com for my domain registration and I use Godaddy for my webhosting... Their technical support is really patient and friendly.

So... I know you will be tempted to purchase the economy hosting package for the $49.00 for the year that it is.... but if I could just bend your ear for a moment... It turns out that the Deluxe package... which I think is about $80.00 is a much better value... because... you can post nearly unlimited websites with their unique domain names with the deluxe package, whereas only get one unique domain with the economy. Too geeky.... sorry.

Basically, if you think you might even remotely be publishing more than 1 website within the year... go for the deluxe package... it will pay for it'self when you go to publish your third unique website.

(Three websites you say? Yes, why just this morning I was putting together a generic affiliate "experiment" with some similar domain names I had previously reserved and parked... are you ready for these doozies????

www.bestbizscorz.com
www.biznessunlimited.com
www.ezmoneyz.com

I know I know... terrible right... But for the purposes of this article, perfect examples. I created one website and am loading to 4 domains... hopefully, one or more will make some money. (IMPORTANT -- Because I purchased these domains from one provider but am hosting the websites at another, there is a certain amount of additional setup required... to have the domains held by the hosting site... and in my case, I have found that although www.1and1internet.com has inexpensive domains... they are very slow to move them over to www.Godaddy.com for me. --and that would explain why they may not be found if you click through sometime near 3/2/09 - since I just updated the name servers to godaddy.com)

OH, quick note:  Name Server or NS is the specific location where your domain is held... so the domain name must be pointed there.  This is what 1and1internet.com is slow to update.  it says it's updated.... but it's really not.  It may take up to 72 hours.

This is the nuts and bolts of the Affiliate Business... what do you offer... what with someone actually pay for... that you can get out there that 158,998,432,001 other people haven't already go out their on Google.

OH PLEASE don't believe the "slightly mispelled keywords" myth.  YES... if you spell bizness wrong... there will be a TON of people who will actually find your site before someone's elses....  I gotta tell you... I had a GREAT website up for 3 years and NEVER MADE A SINGLE SALE... that would be the Total Resale Package... You may have heard of it.  Well, they give you exactly what you ask for... and you have to be careful to make sure you redirect ALL of the built in hyperllinks to your own site the original owners..

So back to my mispelled keywords... I had quite a few hits and according to my tracking software the most popular keyword was bizness... well I guess people that spell business like that don't have paypal accounts... because not a single one purchase that package from me.

OK... So having said that... I have been a member of Commissionjunction for about 5 years... and again... haven't earned a penny... Recently I decided to try Clickbank, that's the company I am using for all fo the above listed websites.

The one thing that I find all Affiliate Websites and offers of how to make money with affiliate income have in common.  Their websites are incredibly compelling... in fact, the very best... the cream of the crop are packed jammed with title after title of interesting things that I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT!

AND that is the trick...  THAT IS WHAT KEEPS ME TRYING...  I KEEP THINKING.... THAT I AM JUST MISSING THAT ONE LITTLE INGREDIENT.... that little but of polish....  that .... that..... PI-ZAZZZ!

SIGH......

The honest truth about earning money with affiliate marketing is.... It is fairly inexpensive... it is very frustrating.... and for me it has not been lucrative... but I see the potential... and THAT's why I keep trying!