Setting the foundation for affiliate marketing is relatively ‘easy’ to do, it simply requires that you learn, understand and employ certain fundamental marketing and business skills. Once you have mastered these skills, you then can plug them into other business models.

I am not going to attempt to list all the possible things you should do but instead just highlight some of the concepts you will master as an affiliate.

-How to properly conduct market research before going into business

First and foremost you need to know how to do market research before going into business. This is very important. If you go into the wrong market that is very saturated (a lot of competitors). In a saturated market there is not enough traffic to go around because there are too many people competing for the same audience.

-How to choose products correctly aligned to your chosen market

Be aware of what is new, successful and what people in that market are interested in.

-How to drive targeted traffic to your website

This is main building block to successful affiliate marketing. This is the key to pre-selling and conversions. You can send tons of people to your website but if they are not interested in what is on that website your not going to make any money.

-How to advertise your business or product

Certain products work well with articles while others don’t. Stay aware of business models that work in your market and always maximize your advertising efforts.

-How to build a database of leads (potential customers)

You need to build a database of leads. Start collecting email addresses and collecting leads that are interested in the product. Gain trust by becoming an expert to these people in whatever field you are in and stay in touch with them.

-How to follow up with your leads and convert them to sales

Learn what your market wants. Let’s say you have a list of leads for people who are interested coral products. You need to send these people tips and guides on things like coral care or a coral watch list. Obviously the people on you list are interested in coral so by staying in touch with them and showing that you are not trying to sell them anything but just help them out your odds of someone purchasing something from you when you do come around to the time when you are selling them greatly increase.

-How to write effective pre-sell and sales copy

Although merchant’s usually have a sales page that they have written or paid for but one of the things you can do to improve your odds of getting a commission of a product is to pre-sell. This is normal done through emails, reports and articles.

-How to drum up more business via repeat customers

Repeat customers are your biggest money makers. Once someone has bought something from you really have gained there trust and the chances that they will buy from you in the future are good. Keeping in touch with your customer buy sending them information they will see value in and buy from you again.

-How to create additional income streams through back-end promotions

This is really just pairing packages together. Let’s say you are selling coral bookends, you could also have a backend product coral lamps or whatever.

As you can see, all of the above skills can apply to any business model - be it affiliate marketing, selling your own products online or even running an offline business.

Greg is an up and coming affiliate marketer. He recommends all potential affiliates find a way to make money while they learn. Greg recommends visiting: http://www.affiliateprogramsvillage.com/blog