To be a successful affiliate marketer takes a ton of work. You probably know this by now. Really! I hear some of you say. You thought it was a piece of cake, mostly because you don't have to worry about having your own product.

Ok, so no product costs, no shipping costs, no payment processor costs, and so on. So what is so hard about being a successful affiliate.

Glad you asked! Your first step should be to make a marketing plan, or as I call it, a 'decision plan'. How many of us really make a complete marketing plan. (Not me!) I know we sh ould, but mine never completed. This is where you decide what niche, or specialtiy you want to 'major' in.

Why don't I just be in 'affiliate marketing'? you ask. Wow, talk about shooting yourself in the foot before you get off the ground. It's TOO competitive, don't you know! Also too general, maybe too vague, all over the map so to speak.

So how come it's good enough for Best Affiliate Products but too much for you? Firstly, I must mention that I do have other niche markets, and some in both the planning and preparation stages. I do heed my own advise. Secondly, someone has to protect you and lead you down the best path to success. I don't want you to experience all the pain I went through.

This is why it's important to associate Affiliate Marketing with Niche Markets. By focusing on one topic, you magnify your chance of success many times over. Doesn't matter if the niche is small or large, but you must align your thinking in this direction.

The niche can be huge, such as Auctions or EBay, and you will find a good market there. The EBay sales may be huge, but the competion for affiliate products is not excessive at all.

Take another huge Niche (specialty) such as Health. Now this competition is ferocious. Personally, I would not touch it, even though a lot of people do well with it. Why fight an uphill battle just to get started, when you can surely find ot her prospective niches.

The solution is to find smaller niches of "in demand" products. Here we go again, you say. More speeches on what to do, but HOW do we do this? And how do we do this successfully, when everyone else is also looking for the answer.

An awful lot of people feel just like you, and as a result, they never find niches, because they never look for them. There goes much of your potential competition. Good for us, OK.

The search for good, usable 'keywords' is the answer to locating a potentially profitable business. Using the right tools makes the task a lot easier, a lot faster, and less stressful from a decision making point of view.

I was just starting to prepare the list of tools to use, when I remembered that they are all listed in the gratis course I offer. The Niche Madness eCourse is 7 days of power packed info on Affiliate Marketing for Niche Markets. Go to www.bestaffiliateproducts.com and sign up for the eCourse. Learn all there is to know, over a 12 day period, as the course is sent out every 2nd day.

But I also have to tell about a new tool I discovered. Every once in a while, a really great tool is created, and I believe that this is the case here.

It's called Adwords Equalizer. It is so loaded with features that it is too much to list here. The easy and important way to see all the benefits is at my Best Products page at BestAffiliateProducts.com

This is a Product and a Half, as the saying goes. You may no longer need expensive services like Wordtracker, where you never stop paying. But the only way to see if it fits your needs, is to visit the site at the site above.

We are finding some good keywords to work with, so what comes next. Regretably, we've run out of time here, so you take the course. Again, just sign up for the Niche Madness eCourse at the link below. The answer is right there.

I wish you Happy Keyword hunting, have fun with it.

Fred Farah copyright 2005