Primary success factors - things you must do

Your site is your tool. When a person enters a site, you have only a couple of seconds to catch her. The site must be well organized and have the right look and feel in order to make visitors stay and take action.

Make sure that your site leads the visitors to the Buy button without hassle. Invite them to take action (such as making a purchase), and don't let them off the hook once you have their interest. This is called conversion.

Taking action must be easy!
Create great content

Good looks aren't enough. For your site to generate income, it needs to accomplish two things:

* Attract a lot of visitors (traffic)
* Make visitors purchase (conversion)

This is primarily done by filling your site with really good content and good usability. It should be relevant for the visitors, and it should encourage them to purchase from your merchants (marketing).
Search engine optimization

If you have chosen to attract mainly organic traffic, that is, through the search engines, the content also needs to be search engine optimized (SEO).
Rule the net with good SEO copy

Search engines pay more and more attention to text quality. Relevant and well-written text doesn't only wins your readers' heart, it helps you rank in Google and drives traffic to your site.

Write for your readers - and for Google. It's called SEO copy.
Advertise and build traffic

Another way of attracting traffic is by paid ads and links. The main arena for this is called PPC (pay per click). You place an ad on another site and pays a small amount each time a visitor clicks on your ad.

The biggest PPC market for affiliates today is Google Adwords. You decide how much you're willing to pay for each click and set a cap for your total spending - so there's no risk for cost explosions. Some web hosts give away free Adwords checks when you place your site with them.

Notice that affiliate programs often limit where and how you're allowed to advertise their products - they don't want you to interfere with their own advertising.
Buying a site vs starting from scratch

For private persons and small businesses, the easiest and least expensive way to start a new affiliate business is to set up a new domain and build a site from scratch. It requires time and effort, but your capital investment can be close to zero.

If you have some resources and want things to happen fast, consider buying an existing site. Old sites may have a built-in credential with the search engines (page rank), and they may even have some traffic already. With the right actions, you can get an old site up in speed very fast.
Give luck a chance

So, that's the short version of how to make big money as an affiliate. Successful affiliates can lead very nice lives, with lots of personal freedom and job satisfaction. Anyone with internet access can try their luck as an affiliate, but of course success is never certain.

One thing is certain though: you cannot succeed if you don't try.

Trying is easy, and it costs almost nothing. If you try and fail, what's the worst that can happen? This list shows the consequences of the worst case scenario:

* Nothing happens

As you can see, this is pretty much the same as if you don't try =)
Top 10 affiliate programs

If you've decided to give it a go, why not check out the top five money-generating affiliate programs all categories? Maybe one of them is the starting point of your new career.

1. CardOffers - $160 for credit card approval and $30 for application submit.
2. WebHostingBuzz - Promote a highly demanded online service
3. ThinkHost - The eco-friendly web host, plants a tree for every new customer
4. Full Tilt Poker - Promote the market leading and ever so popular poker rooms
5. EuroPartners - Unbeatable commission to promote a billion dollar industry
6. AdValiant Network - The best affiliate network on the market
7. BestCasinoPartner.com - Great commission and high conversion rate
8. Axandra - Promote best selling software IBP and earn high commission
9. MarketHealth - Niche affiliate network on the lucrative health market
10. Cpays - Serious affiliate network with good earning potential

source : www.affiliatetips.com/how-you-make-big-money-as-an-affiliate.html