First post of 2011 and a new product to tell you about - home business websites. You can be ready to go within 48 hours with a pre-filled website offering a range of products which pay you a commission on each sale.

No stock, no postage, no hassle! Everything is done by the affiliate provider. If you prefer to sell your own products you can still use this product as it is tailored to your needs. Can include a blog or shopping cart as required.

It is a flexible way of getting you online, whether you are an established offline business looking for a website or new to the website world and looking for a  way of making money via a home business.

The link to follow is SNS Internet - home business websites. You'll find all of the information you need there and can contact them directly if you have any questions.

I've also had my first competition win of 2011 - a thermal mug! Courtesy of the Outdoors Magic website. It seems to be a lot harder these days to win competitions. 2010 was not a good year in terms of number of wins and some of them were a bit poor.

Anyway, it's not going to stop me, I'm determined to make 2011 a good comping year - perhaps win my first holiday this year. Technically it has started better than 2010 as I've won my first prize 8th January compared to 14th February last year.

So it's straight back to The Prizefinder website to enter some more and keep my fingers crossed. Wishing you all a happy and prosperous 2011, and a lucky one too. All the best.

Over the past few years I have dabbled with affiliate marketing with varying success. At the moment I don't have a steady stream of income from this source, although I have had in the past.

When selecting your affiliates you need to make sure that it could be worthwhile all of the time and effort spent amending your website and promoting their program. Some affilate programs don't last long and others pay a pittance.

If the commission payable is 3% and the average sale made is £20 then you are only going to receive 60p for each sale. You need a LOT of sales to make a living. Plus affilate links tend to have a poor conversion rate, so think of the number of visitors you need to generate even a tenner!

Concentrate on the bigger paying sectors. One of these that I had success with in the past was the finance sector. Unfortunately this sector is not paying out anywhere as much or as often as it used to. Plus finance affiliate programs seem to be closing all of the time at the moment!

Another sector that has paid me well in the past is the mobile phone sector. Payouts tend to be on a flat fee per sale and this could be around £30. A few sales here soon add up and could make into a viable business.

However, with the popular sectors competition is always going to be greater. If you are spending money to promote your site you are going to have to pay more for programs such as Google Adwords.

It is unlikely too that you can just set up an affiliate program on your site, leave it alone and watch the money roll in. At the moment I have several programs that need to be closed as the affiliates are no longer going and I need to find other programs to replace them. This is time consuming.

Plus you have to keep on top of promotions from the various companies and, if you have signed up to multiple programs, keep checking your various accounts for tracking and statistics.

So affiliate marketing can generate you income, but it is not as easy as it looks (unless you already have a high traffic site within a specialised sector) and is time consuming. As with everything, the more you put into it the more you are likely to get out of it!