Are you are considering getting started in or you have already been in affiliate marketing? If you have been struggling or don't know where to start and you're asking yourself, "is affiliate marketing any good?" then you need to be asking these questions of every affiliate marketing program you consider:

1. Is this part of an affiliate network? If the product you want to promote for commission is part of one of the large affiliate product houses like ClickBank, Commission Junction, or Pay.Com then you can rest a little easier that the product publisher is not a scam artist who is going to take the consumer's money without delivering a product. You can also rest easier know that you will actually get paid your commission since these organizations handle all the billing and the payments and are very reputable.

2. High value product or just a great sales pitch? There are many affiliate products out there (especially when it comes to ebooks) that are reputable in the sense that ClickBank will make sure you get paid as an affiliate and make sure that the product is delivered but the product is not nearly as great as it was sold to be. The sad thing is that often the most sales go to people who are just starting to learn about whatever particular topic they purchased an ebook for so they won't know if they got a lousy product or not. Make sure you that you only promote products that you would feel great about offering to your best friend and you should be ok.

3. Will I do what it takes to make affiliate marketing any good? As with any business, 90% of people don't make a profit with affiliate marketing long term because they are not willing to put the time and effort into learning the necessary marketing skills they must possess to be successful. These individuals then quit and claim that it was a scam when they fail. Make sure you are willing to learn everything that needs to be learned about article marketing, pay-per-click ads, video marketing, and social networking before embarking on an affiliate marketing business or else you might turn out to be someone who quits too early, calls the whole thing a scam, and answers "hell, no" when asked "is affiliate marketing any good?"