If you're anything like me you're probably wishing you had someone that was honest and could tell you some tips and pitfalls that you may need to know at some point. So here I am being that person you need to keep you informed.

I'm going to start with giving you some affiliate marketing tips that I hop will be able to help you.

No matter what you may have heard about affiliate marketing, it's not realistic to say that everyone can make 5,000 - 10,000 dollars a month. Not everyone is willing to put in the hard work and there is also no money that will fall into your hands without you doing anything for it.

With that in mind, you'll find some high level tips below that will help you make money with affiliate marketing programs on the internet.

1. Google and Overture Even though the days of free traffic aren't completely over, they are surely fading away quickly. You can choose to work hard creating web pages that score well in the search engines, although it's very hard to do.

By paying for clicks with Google and Overture, you'll have the top three positions on the search engines that matter the most. If you hope to generate web traffic from Yahoo, all you need to do is be at the top of Google.

2. Your own email list Sending offers to your very own email list is the ideal way to build freedom and residual income. Instead of sending traffic away then hoping for the best, you should instead have your own email list to which you are able to send multiple offers.

3. Your own affiliate program If you knew that each filled out form on your site generated .50 cent in revenue, would you still be willing to pay someone else .25 cents to generate that same traffic?

The most overlooked ways of generating traffic is having others generate it for you. There are many advantages to this method, including the fact that others will be getting your traffic for you.

When it all comes down to it, everything involves paying for traffic in one way or another. You can either pay with money or you can pay with time. You have to decide which payment is more beneficial to you. Be sure to invest very wisely in advertising.

So now that we covered some good tips, I am going to now discuss some pitfalls. Remember, most of these may have been learned from experience, while some of these are learned through others experience. Either way, I hope they help you.

Even though affiliate marketing is an excellent way to earn money, there are several pitfalls that you'll need to be aware of. As long as people have been earning money, people have also tried to figure out how to earn more by doing a lot less.

All you need to do is a quick online search for "work from home" or "making easy money". You'll instantly find millions of websites, simply click on a few and you'll notice that they all start off the same. You'll see a guy with a big house and a lot of money saying if you sign up, this could be you - how far from the truth!

The only way you can earn a good, stable income is to put in the hard work it takes. Before you join any affiliate program, you need to do the proper research. That's one of the best benefits of the internet - finding the information you need.

All you need to do is search for the name of the affiliate program that your interested in, adding the word scam to it and see what pops up. You should also join some work from home forums, and don't be afraid to ask the right questions.

There are a few ways that you can tell what program is most likely a scam. If a program doesn't tell you their compensation plan unless you sign up, watch out. A lot of programs won't tell you what you'll be doing unless you buy a kit for a set price.

With any program, there should always be 100% free disclosure. You'll need to know what you are going to be doing before you even start. If a program doesn't tell you what you are going to be doing or if you have to pay money first, you should avoid it.