Of course the answer to the question "Can you make money as an affiliate?" is Yes, you absolutely CAN make money.
But it's really made up of two components as follows: "How MUCH money can you make as an affiliate?" and "How QUICKLY can you make money as an affiliate marketer?" These questions can only be answered by you! Here's what you have to DECIDE to tackle the "How Much?" and "How Quickly?" components of "Can You Make Money as an Affiliate?" - How much CASH can I invest in starting up my affiliate marketing business? If you have cash to invest in learning affiliate marketing, it will shorten the time to make your first sale.
If you don't have cash to invest, just a PC and Internet access, it may take longer.
How much TIME can I devote to starting up and maintaining the business? Like all the pictures of affiliates vacationing in exotic places and driving a new BMW? They invested a good deal of time to enjoy the money they made.
Once you know how much time and cash you CAN invest in an online business, and start moving forward with your plan (or someone else's blueprint), you will soon discover the answers to how much money and how quickly you can make money as an affiliate.
An Example Let's suppose that you have no cash to invest to start your online business, but can devote 8 hours a day.
You write several squidoo lenses (free) to drive traffic to.
Then, let's suppose you also write and submit 4 keyword-driven articles that send clicks to the lenses at the rate of 50 clicks per week.
Total construction time is four to five 8-hour days, including the learning curve.
If your four articles generate 4 sales per week and each sale represents $25, you could potentially earn $100 per week from this single affiliate marketing campaign.
Using this example, the time expended is four to five days and the potential earnings per week is $100.
Total elapsed time for the earnings is 2 weeks (the campaign needs time to generate traffic).