There is a lot of money to be made with Affiliate Marketing. Consider, for instance, promoting products on JVZoo. I look for those products where you get 100% on the front end. The real trick is to ONLY promote what you really know and feel comfortable with promoting. If you have been involved with Internet Marketing for a long time, you have exposed yourself to many money making schemes/opportunities; however, you quickly learn what will and will not work. An added bonus to this is, you learn what sells and why.
Therefore, armed with this knowledge, you know which product to promote and earn with consistently. I do remember my first time I signed up as an affiliate with JVZoo. I made more than $1,000 in less than an hour. I had created a Skype room previously and had many people there where I was teaching CPA. My CPA group grew to a pretty good size. I saw a very good CPA product on JVZoo, bought it myself ($9.95) and then reviewed it, and more than 100 people purchased within the hour.
The reason why you get 100% on the front end with a JVZoo product from the creator is because they usually have backend products they are selling. In this case the creator was pushing (selling) a new software product he created.
This just goes to show you that you really can make money being an affiliate. It's really all in the know-how. Know your product well and you'll make more and more money. Also, remember, you must know where to promote your product. Say, for instance on Skype (like I did), YouTube (a great place to promote), Facebook, Twitter, Article Marketing using different article marketing platforms.
There is no magic or trick here, just the more you learn the more you earn. This applies to any business platform, and definitely to affiliate marketing. Now, imagine creating your own product or selling PLR which you basically can rewrite and make much better and modern for sale. There you have it.