It was not long ago that I stopped running in the rat race and started working for myself. In the short period of time that I have been an affiliate marketer, I have gained a world-class education. After buying numerous programs that were nothing more than reworked versions of themselves, I was fortunate enough to realize that there are basically only three things that an affiliate marketer needs to be a success.

These things are: The ability to get and stay organized. The ability to identify traffic patterns. The ability to sell a product and/or service that delivered what it promised.

Why is organization so important? On a personal level, I was only recently diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and I ran every aspect of my life on a piece by piece basis praying for the time when I would finish a particular task. As much as I thought being self-employed would offer relief, I soon discovered that running a business required significant amounts of time and effort.

Being organized allows you to: Determine what needs to be done. Prioritize what needs to be done. Track your progress and eliminate duplication of effort.

Getting traffic is one thing, but determining how the traffic is flowing is king! When I first started affiliate marketing, I made the same mistake almost every affiliate marketer made. I hastily purchased the first product that caught my eye, set up advertising accounts in Yahoo and Google and I watched as my advertising budget was quickly depleted. That was because I was not aware of the cardinal rule of affiliate marketing. I had bought a product and tried to sell it when I should have researched what products were selling and try to sell those products.

By investing the time to research how traffic is flowing, you can become an expert in identifying the much coveted 'niche' market.

The final piece of my success puzzle was having something that would actually sell. As I said before, I bought many programs that were nothing more than reworked versions of themselves. Even after I had tons of traffic, I could not sell these programs to people who had already purchased them or were tired of hearing about them. On top of that, I have a reputation to consider.

The good products and services are out there, but you have to look for them. If your customers could find them on their own, you would not have a business!