How to market successfully?

This is an affiliate marketing general Q&A post which I know is definately not original or new at all, but I'll ask anyway, as this forum seems like the right venue to ask it in.

I have actually been blacklisted for asking my questions (unknowingly) on the wrong type of forums!

I believe these are legit and fair questions, and I hope they don't cause anyone any grief by my asking.

For any forum guard-dogs here, please note:

There are absolutely NO links, No offers, NO, come-ons, NO soliciting, and NO products or services being hinted at, or referred to, anywhere in my query. I'm just asking general affiliate-based questions.

Honestly, my purpose is to to pick the brains of those who are actually making money, so I can start doing the same!

I'm sure there's a million or more affiliate marketers out there like me who would probably consider my questions to be more relevant than any other business topic on the planet.

Anyway, here I go, part rant, part whine, and part query...

FIRST THE WHINING:
(by the way, if anyone has cheese to go with my 'whine' that would be perfect!)

Seriously, I have been an affiliate referral marketer now for about 5 years and have tried a lot of prorgrams.

I've enjoyed minimal success, because I have failed to continuously generate enough sign-ups to actually earn any significant commissions. (does this sound familiar?) LOL


NOW MY QUESTIONS (5) (some rants included in there)

Note: This is directed at those of you who are, in fact, making money consistently through your affiliate program(s).

I'll just precede every question in advance here by saying: (IN YOUR OPINION

1. Where's the BEST place to PLACE free ads to get the best results?

(I've spent hours and hours setting up ads, pasting ads , sending ads using craigslist and others, endlessly with absolutely no results)


2. Where should I BUY 'paid' ads in order to enjoy the best click-through rates or impressions?

(many high traffic sites are so over-saturated, I don't even get noticed, and the competition there is ruthless)

3. Who should I BUY quality targeted traffic from, if I'm wanting to send that traffic to my affiliate-linked site?

(rant)
(There's a million traffic offers out there, with many of them being offered by shady outfits or persons that offer no visble means of contacting them once I become a buyer.)

(rant)
And a lot of these deals don't even seem to offer a way to track whether your traffic is even being sent or not-
and you're supposed to pay them and just hope for a good result?
(that can't be right).

Somebody MUST know a great place to buy traffic that's actually niche-targeted for MY offers.

4. WHAT is THE most EFFECTIVE & LEGIT strategy or method
that Internet Referral Marketers should apply, in order to start generating massive converting traffic to a site, if they are stuck using an affiliate link? (I face the same traffic question even after buying/creating squeeze/landing pages: no traffic)

5. What do the winners (highest-paid affiliates) in referral marketing DO EVERY DAY to create the kind of traffic that leads to them being able to generate the highest EPCs, or earnings-per-click?

(No way I an afford the google ad budget necessary to even begin competing in that area- (keywords)

6. If I DO manage to eventually find and join what appears to be great program with high pay-outs, and I DO finally start to generate some high responses to my campaigns, WHAT can/should I do to PROTECT myself?

(rant)
(I'm constantly reading about link-theft, anti-cloaking devices, re-directing of affiliate tags, unauthorized mirror site creations, and a whole slew of other ruthless and insidious ways that predators steal traffic and cheat affiliates out of our hard-earned commissions.)

(whine)
7. And finally this: I'm getting pretty tired of being just another hopeful and hopeless johnny-sausage-head spending year after year hoping to cash in on this escalating Internet trend of affiliate marketing. I really need something that works, because I feel like I must need a new pair of glasses, because of the fact that I'm obviously missing seeing something.

Got any suggestions, anyone??

(I'm mainly interested in reading & learning the answers to the questions above- and not necessarily looking for even more opportunities and programs to fail at, because (1) without the knowledge, even 'the best' programs are doomed to fail, as I've painfully discovered, and (2) It's the application of that knowledge, which will make all the difference- but first you have to know what you're doing wrong.

thnx a mil..all answers appreciated-

(sorry for being so long-winded, and also sounding like the whiny newbie I no doubt appear to be. )!

fw