If you are like most people, you have read most everything about affiliate marketing including success stories of affiliates who built a very profitable business with it. It can be hard for a beginner to figure out how to do things right to start this business because there is just too much information (sometimes contradicting) out there. To figure things out, you'll need to follow 5 action steps you could take to get on the right track.

The first step in earning money with affiliate marketing is to do a research of various markets and products. You need to find a market where there is a big amount of buyers that can play in your favor. You also need to find a product or service that people want to buy. To find this information, you could use Google's Keyword External Tool and analyze several market ideas with the help of sites like Amazon and eBay.

The second step is to establish your Internet presence. Most affiliate programs do not require that you make your own site because you can just use your affiliate ID to refer visitors. I would recommend however that you have your personal site on the Internet so you can use promotion methods such as search engine optimization, banners, and various other ways of marketing.

The third step is to devise your marketing strategy. There are many various ways to market online so it is important that you concentrate your efforts on them sequentially until things start developing. For example, if you want to get visitors to your site using articles, learn about the main article directories, how to write articles the proper way, and other things you need to master until you understand how to do it right.

The next step is to understand a budget for your advertising. There are many ways to market online free of charge however eventually you will want to spend some money on advertising if not on outsourcing. Estimate how much money you can spend on a weekly basis and where the money will go for your affiliate marketing business. This is something that very few affiliate marketers do and as a result they spend their money on unnecessary investments.

The fifth step is to take action. Start small and work your way up. You do not need to spend tons of money like most companies to get off the ground. You can start with a few hundred dollars and slowly increase depending on the level of your successes. This is the correct way of growing any business - test small and scale up when you hit a money stream.