That was most likely one of the most succinct outline of an online business model that I have read and for free thanks Lyn.

You can read most of the procedures woven through different methods you read online but the sticking point is always the conversion to sale and the traffic.

The method of affiliate marketing is either to have landing presell page or direct link to the merchants site through what ever traffic methods you are comfortable with. The latter generally means you miss out on building a list and is hard to know if you did get a sale.

The former is like holding a A4 sign on the edge of the highway It seems to me the traffic issue, coupled with backlink authority to what ever site is the money site is the one thing that is the hardest to nail.