Hundreds of people start affiliate marketing every month, yet most of them can barely make enough money to quit their day job after one year or two. There is no secret. Obviously, they are doing something wrong.
Many of them think that they don't need a coach to succeed, and that they will make it alone. It's important to understand the marketing process. You need to serve your market. Help them solving their problem, and they will love you for that. And when they love you, they'll buy whatever you recommend.
Most of the products you see on Clickbank promising customers to make money are simply telling their readers to launch Google campaigns which is outright scam, we, (advanced) affiliate marketers would say. If you're an affiliate marketer who directs traffic to the merchant, you're actually building the merchant's business even if your referred prospect doesn't buy. Top affiliate marketers all their own website where they build a customer list or a community such as forum which encourages repeat visitors. Repeat visitors means more sales. If you're directing traffic to an affiliate link from Google Adwords or by using forums, you're losing out on a lot of profits. Having your own website also brands you as a real business online. You can create a brand name for yourself and create trust among your prospects. This means you will have more joint-venture opportunities in the future to create more business relationships. This is not possible if you simply redirect your advertising efforts to your affiliate link.