You can't move far on the interwebs these days without someone trying to tell you all about affiliate marketing. Beginners are, not surprisingly, confused. Anyone who thinks they might be interested in such a thing - and who wouldn't want extra income, right?- becomes quickly overwhelmed by all the information out there. Not to mention the vast number of cowboys trying to sell "Make Millions While You Sleep" scams. It gets very irritating looking at all those sales pages with photos of huge houses, huge helicopters and huge breasts. So, let's get real.

As you're reading this, I'm assuming you may be one of those affiliate marketing beginners I was talking about. You're enticed by the idea of making money online, but have no idea how to go about it. The good news is that it IS possible to generate an on-line income. The bad news is you're going to have to do some work. Quite a lot of work, actually.

Now, too many people give up when they realise that they are going to need to write articles. "But I can't write", they sigh. Nonsense, of course you can write. You send texts, write emails, don't you? Then you can write a 400 word article Trust me, you can. We're not talking Pulitzer Prize winning journalism, here. We need honestly written, easy to read articles that solve peoples' problems. Write as if you're chatting to a colleague, giving them the benefit of your expertise. "Expertise in what?" you say. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter at all. Whatever you know about, are passionate about or are just willing to learn something about will work . You can write articles about anything you like.

There are a few things you will need to know - you'll need to know about keywords and how to find them (free tools are available), you'll need to know about affiliate programs (most are free to join), you'll need help and advice (free forums are available) and you'll need a plan. Perhaps the best advice for affiliate marketing beginners is to take an online internet marketing course where advice, tutorials and helpful tools can be found (these are not free, but the worthwhile ones charge a very reasonable monthly fee). The advantage of such courses is that you are given a step-by-step guide, there are real people willing to help you and there will be many tools included in the price that can help your research and article writing.