To make the most money as an affiliate you have to get your education just like you would at school. No one just jumps into the restaurant business without going to business school or knowing anything about business. You can not just become a lawyer or a doctor without going to law school or medical school. So my advice to you if you what to become a super affiliate is to educate yourself on the industry as much as you possibly can.
First you need to know how to write a good sales copy for google adwords or for your own web site. This is a must I think that most people over look. If you want to make money this is a must have. It does not matter how the site and the pictures look as long as you have good content and it gets the person to buy.
A good way of getting free traffic is to write as much as you can about your niche. This will let you compromise on the free traffic google, yahoo, msn, and other search engine sites have to offer. Again good content is king and it will bring you traffic. When you write a article make sure it is between 600-800 words. This is a good length for all the search engines from my own experience.
You have to want to help others and you will succeed yourself. I heard someone say once that the more people you help the more you will help yourself and this quote could not be truer. With that being said do not send them to a junk site that will not help them grow as an affiliate. Then if you try to resell them something in the future they most likely will not buy because you housed them the first time.
Your third affiliate tip on how to make money as an affiliate is you need to know how to make money from google adwords. If you do not know how to do this then you are missing out on a big market. There are many books about this subject you just have to decipher which ones are good and which ones are garbage.
So lets recap. In order to make the most money you can make as an affiliate and eventually become a super affiliate you must educate yourself by buying books/videos. Remember to write good content in your sales pitches and when you write articles. Once people catch you lying your credibility is gone. Do not let your customers feel like they have been had. You want them to feel like they have made a wise choice and then you will get references back to your site.
You can find some free stuff but again would you get into any brick and motor business before you went to school for them. Another analogy is comparing it to a construction worker or a carpenter. If you only knew a little about that industry there is a good chance you will not do that well. As if you where a master at these fields the probability of you succeeding is a high probability.