Up until about 3 or 4 years ago it was fairly easy to pick an affiliate product and then make a website and get traffic for it that converted with a positive RO

Up until about 3 or 4 years ago it was fairly easy to pick an affiliate product and then make a website and get traffic for it that converted with a positive ROI. It was basically an arbitrage opportunity in an unbalanced market. Now that the market is more balanced, it is necessary to have the traffic first (usually by providing engaging content) and then find affiliate marketing programs to successfully monetize that existing traffic. More often than not, selling advertising on a website pays better than affiliate programs.