Over the past week I’ve had several questions about how to get started with affiliate marketing.

Here’s the simplest way. The only thing you need is a website, and you can get that in two minutes by using Blogger.

Here’s how to start promoting products as an affiliate:

1. Go to Amazon.com, and join their affiliate program. Amazon sells products in almost any category you can imagine. Whatever the topic of your site, you’ll find products there you can sell with a few clicks.

You’ll find the link to join Amazon Associates (that’s their affiliate program) on the home page; scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you’ll see the link, as in the image above. Just follow the instructions to join.

2. All done? Great. Now search for something on Amazon.com that’s related to the topic of your blog.

For example, let’s say that you’re blogging about weight loss.

Just enter “weight loss” into the search field on the home page of Amazon.com.

I just did that, and I got the results you can see in the image above.

Click on a product you want to promote.

I clicked on the alli product.

Now look at the top of the product page, above the Amazon logo. You’ll see a grey link bar, as in the image below.

Click the link which says: “Link to this page”.

A box similar to the one in the image below will open.

Click the Highlight HTML button, and copy the code.

Now all you need to do is paste the code into your webpage, or blog post — the code already contains your affiliate information. Whenever someone buys using your link, you get credit for the sale, and once your affiliate sales mount up, you’ll get paid.

Simple, right? That’s all there is to getting started with affiliate marketing. Now go and sell some products.

Affiliate marketing is essentially free. You join an affiliate program and make money. Promote a product which sells for $500 and you could make $50 per sale. A way to coin money, right?

Yes and no.

While affiliate marketing is “free”, there is expense, both in time and in money. There’s no free lunch.

Merchants create affiliate programs so that others will help them to promote their products — they’ll act as salespeople for them.

When you join an affiliate program, you need to work out how you’ll promote that particular product. The more time, energy and (yes) money you devote to this, the more you will sell.

Most new-comers fail at affiliate marketing because they don’t understand that the more they put in, the more they get. If you just paste banners all over your website, unless you’re amazingly lucky, you won’t make a cent from affiliate marketing.

It’s a business in which there are many ways to fail.

However, you can achieve success, when you approach your affiliate sales as a campaign. The best affiliate marketers spend a lot of time and money promoting products. They research their market, and their products. As much as possible, they make sure that a product they’re considering actually sells, because many products, for any number of reasons, don’t.

If you’re looking for a free way to make money online, affiliate marketing can work for you, as long as you understand that the first dollars you make need to be invested in your business over and over again, and that making money will take time.

If you understand this, affiliate marketing can not only work for you, it can also be your “free” road to riches.

If you’re a ClickBank affiliate, you’re aware of gravity. Indeed, you may choose to promote products based solely on this particular indicator. If lots of affiliates are promoting the product, it must be great, right?

The short answer is: Maybe.

Perhaps the product is attracting lots of affiliates because it’s a great product, and it’s selling like the proverbial hot cakes.

On the other hand, the product may simply have had a huge launch. Launches attract affiliates. As the product’s gravity surges, more affiliates jump on: this is the reason why product creators aim to make their launch as big as possible: success breeds success.

What hidden gems are you missing out on when you focus on gravity?

Here’s a secret about ClickBank gravity: low gravity means little competition. As long as a low-gravity product meets a need, and it has a good sales page, then chances are you can do very well with it.

I like to test lots of new products — products which are so new, that they have no gravity at all. Some of these products are duds, but the occasional one is a little goldmine. With no competition, you can sell these products day after day, making a juicy little income on just four or five of these treasures.

Here’s what I do. I visit the ClickBank Research page on Wealthy Affiliate regularly, at least once or twice every week, and I check out the new products. If I find a product in a niche in which I’m interested, which has a good sales page, I buy the product (this is essential), and if I like it, I start promoting it.

Here’s what’s wrong with this method: I need to shift a lot of dirt before I find a diamond.

On the bright side, if I’ve found a diamond, I’ve found a product which will make money for me for months (if I’m lucky for years) to come.