Becoming an affiliate takes dedication, like any job, vocation or profession. There's a lot to learn and information is continually changing. The fastest way to ramp up and keep up is to do both of the following - at the same time:

1) Read educational materials from someone who is an actual affiliate! James Martell is an excellent choice - he publishes an excellent downloadable training manual. It's the Internet's most reliable & up-to-date learning system for building high-traffic websites that make money automatically with affiliate programs. Buy it, download it and get started right away, no waiting. It's fully refundable for 60 days and comes bundled with some bonus materials as well. The manual contains over 40,000 words, nearly 200 graphics and 389 pages of precise instruction - so this isn't some fly-by-night e-book. You will need to dedicate yourself to thoroughly reading the manual and incorporating the taught skills into your efforts. This isn't a magical recipe that takes 30 minutes - but follow the steps and you will find success. As you grow into things, you'll find niches to explore, traffic techniques that you favor personally (I love ppc myself - it's fast) and you'll begin to see profits. It's not an easy road, it takes effort - but the knowledge you need is all right there in James Martell's manual.

2) Join ABestWeb! It's a community forum for Internet Marketing Affiliates. You can post and exchange ideas with your peers. It's a wild environment because so many of these folks are independent and successful and don't take orders from anyone. Dive in and post, respect other's privacy, realize plagiarism will get you into big trouble there and become one of many affiliates sharing ideas and experiences. This is a great place to get free tips, ask questions, learn about what's moving and shaking the industry and to get some insight into what works and what doesn't. The best place to start is the area at ABestWeb called the ABestWeb Affiliate Academy. You don't have to sign up to read the bulk of the posts there at ABestWeb (aka ABW), but membership is required to post there. Go ahead and lurk if you're just curious now. But if you do decide to become an affiliate, sign up and start being a part of the affiliate community!

3) Attend the Affiliate Summit conference, to learn more about it all. This conference is held twice a year in the USA, once in the winter (in Las Vegas) and again in the summer (somewhere on the east coast, moving each year to a new location). They've also held a new one in the UK and that may become a regular thing as well. The conference has truly great sessions where a lot of good information can be found! And when we independent affiliate marketers get together, it's guaranteed to be fun!

If you have a quick question about affiliate marketing, feel free to contact me. My own affiliate activities have brought me an income I never thought possible and joy and freedom that are well beyond words for me - I wish you the very best of "luck" with your affiliate business!

PS - the "luck" part was a joke, you can only reach your goals through your education and your effort - get started!