Generally, when you go into town to look for your first job, you can find some type of work you have at least a passing familiarity with. In the case of working for a grocery store, it is likely that you have encountered groceries at some point in your life and can be depended upon to identify common elements in the grocery store business and the operation of the day to day business as a going concern. Unfortunately, affiliate marketing rarely has a relative example or experience from the real world that compares with the operation of the internet and it's ability to serve as a platform for earning money as an affiliate marketer. Many new affiliates are simply flying blind in the world of internet affiliate marketing and there are very few, if any truly comprehensive tutorials that cover the successful operation of a web based affiliate marketing campaign or program as a log term project.

The basic concept behind affiliate marketing is that the affiliate sets up a web site and puts and ad on the web site. The affiliate marketing ad leads visitors to the affiliate's chosen sponsor, which could be any number of retail locations on the web, such as a resume service, a tire store or even an ebay type auction service. Once the sponsor's link is activated by the user, the sponsor keeps track of any purchases the visitors make and pays the affiliate accordingly, usually a very small percentage of the whole amount. After a certain amount is reached in funds, usually a pre determined amount set by the user or affiliate program, the user receives a check in the mail and can use the funds in any way he or she sees fit.

The different methods of payout vary widely, and have different values entirely. Some programs offer a pay per click scheme, which is rather easy to manipulate and cheat at, while others offer a payment for each sign up, or a payment for each recurring purchase by the user, uniquely defined by the visit to the affiliate marketing site. These different pay out plans serve to encourage the individual web sites to use above the board click gathering tactics as well as writing strong affiliate marketing ad copy to make the ad more presentable to the public. Raw clicks have reduced greatly in value over time, and method generally considered most profitable is pay per signup or pay per purchase.

The success of the affiliate marketing web master is nearly wholly predicated upon the ability to attract traffic to the affiliate web site and convert it into paying customers that support the affiliate marketing web site and it's ongoing attempts at profitability. Once the marketing site enjoys a modicum of new unique visitors every day, the success of the affiliate marketer is all but ensured, as he needs only to continue the promotion processes, such as submitting to search engines and forums, as well as directories and news sites on the web. While the hard work occurs early on, the affiliate marketer has to remain consistent in his effort to remain solvent on the web.