Affiliate marketing is a very challenging way to make money, almost seems impossible to me at times. If you have tried you know what I am talking about, its frustrating. You look around the web, read the forums and see all the success stories.

If you want to try your hand at affiliate marketing you need to arm yourself with the right tools. I have put together a list of the tools I use as as system to generate income. I know they work and work well. Lets get right to it:

1. Build a Niche Store(BANS)- BANS is a wonderful piece of software that anyone can use to get a niche site up and running in no time and with little experience. BANS is built around the Ebay affiliate program through Commission Junction, you must join this program to utilize the software to its fullest extent. The members forum at BANS is one of the best I have ever been involved with, the members over there never complain about duplicate questions or simple requests. You will always be able to find the help you need without feeling intimidated. This software comes with a bonus, in my opinion, you are allowed to create unlimited sites with a single license. Here is the link to Build a Niche Store
2. Hosting- You need to find a good, cheap host to build your sites. Host Gator seems to be the most popular provider amongst the users over at the BANS forum. The Baby Croc plan is only $7.95 per month and allows you to host unlimited sites and works well with BANS. So if you are in need of hosting check out the Host Gator Baby Croc plan.
3. Research- The next and most important step is niche research. Finding your niche can be a challenge and finding one that you can compete in is even more difficult. There are many free tools to use for research and some very good subscription based tools. Ebay is a great place to start, they have the whats hot list and a subscription based trends tool. Google is also another great place to research keywords. In addition to these free tools I recommend using Word Tracker, they have a free trial so you can get a taste of what they have to offer.

I will expand on these in the coming days and explain further how to put this to work for you. We will also talk about how to get traffic to your niche site without waiting for the search engines. Granted search engines will be your best friend, but to make money now you need traffic. There are a few tricks to get the ball rolling and I will tell you about these later, but first we need to get are stores up and running. So get over to the BANS site and get the script!