A lot of people are making a lot of money using affiliate programs. If you go about it in a business-like manner, you can run several affiliate programs at the same time provided that they are all on a similar theme you can set up your own website to advertise them allThat way you can capture the names and email addresses of your prospects and customers. You will need to set up your own database and auto-responder but that is not difficult.

Affiliate programs are very good training grounds; use them to gain experience and to obtain a list of prospective customers. Then it is the time to branch out on your own and build your business but if the affiliate programs are still earning you money via a website, keep them going, they are one of your best assetsWho knows; you may end up with your own affiliate programs, with hundreds of members selling things whilst you claim 50% of the profits