It's a risky business. No one can really guarantee success and sometimes even though you are making sales you are still not profitable.
By sheer statistics you will generate some sales given enough direct marketing. The fact is we do not know if the people on the forum topics screen shot are making profits.
They may be providing a useful service, and since they are monthly fee based I would think that they are probably providing some tools of value or else they would not retain subscribers, so give them a shot if you are really willing to try what they are offering.
I never got into affiliate marketing hardcore because I never had the $1,000+ required to dump into it but I've dabbled in google adwords to promote a service I was offering (my ad - visible on google.com search results only - recieved a 9.19% CTR which is pretty damn high.)
The best way to get started from what I have read and researched is to sign up at
www.clickbank.com which handles the affiliate programs for tons of products, get a google adwords account, and start posting ads for other people's products using your affiliate URL (that is tracked and you get credit for).
That's all you have to do. Then come in the fine technical details like how do you write an effective ad, how do you determine what keywords to bid on, what times of day are most effective and bringing in money, etc. That's where that site comes in, but its not the only resource.
Reading List
A few books you can pick up (for lower than the monthly fee) that will give you invaluable insight into web marketing and google ad words (and give you enough to get started on your own) are:
1. The Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords by Todd Marshall (Entrepreneur.com Press)
2. Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy Every Time by Maria Veloso
I have read both and despite their titles, they both seem to cover the entire sales process of online direct marketing products (the kind ripe for affiliate marketing).
The first one covers some good points about writing google ads and managing campaigns effectivley, including giving you a bunch of practical things you can do to pay less for more clicks over time and just touches upon the other topics like mailing lists and web copy, etc.
The second book covers writing web copy (meaning a website that promotes a product) in very good depth and then touches on google adwords, mailing lists, writing effective newsletters, etc. and those topics (but gives you enough info to make what they touch on work for you).
By picking up both you get a pretty good overall picture of how selling online works. They also make good references, so I would recommend buying them if you are serious about getting into online business. If you master the skills they present you will have a serious heads up in the business.
Keep The Following In Mind
Then if you start putting your own money on the line you have to make sure of a few things:
1.
You have enough money to keep going despite setbacks. The worst that can happen is that you are on the verge of success, you have spent money on testing and tweaking your website, ads, etc. and now you are out of cash to really get that puppy going.
2.
You treat it as a regular full time job. For the first few months of doing this you will have to scour every related forum, resource, etc. to learn as much as you possibly can. Its always better to learn from someone else's mistake than it is to pay for your own mistake. Put in serious effort and you will have a better chance at serious reward. Yes, its better to work smarter not harder, but from what I have researched a lot of newbs to the industry think they can start living the dream of working 30 minutes a day from day 1.
3.
Make an action plan. Step 2 may lead to what is known as "paralysis by analysis" (which many people on this forum have for approaching women), turning you into an affiliate version of a keyboard jockey. You will have to ultimatley come to grips with the fact that perfect information is not available and you will have to start putting money on the line and doing what you learned to the best of your ability thus far. You can always tweak what you do later, but you will eventually have to take the plunge.
I hope that helps.
