I had just discovered affiliate programs and was eager to learn more. I couldn't wait to sign up and for the money to roll in. And I found many good ones, eventually, but not before I learned what not to do the hard way. I fell for a money-sucking scheme that masqueraded as an affiliate program. Excited as I was about affiliate marketing, this one seemed ideal: easy set-up, practically running on auto-pilot. Everything was done for me. Practically free. Alas, it was too good to be true.

Many if not most of the affiliate marketing programs I have found in the meantime are actually for real. You can make serious money there. But the one I had fallen for was among those that seem to make money mostly for the person who told you about it. You're paying his or her bills!

Who knows. Maybe some people actually did make real money with that program, but chances are, they spent more than they made. I personally actually got a check - for about 11 dollars, and I'm way to embarrassed to tell you how many hundreds I spent on fees and upgrades to get that.

Of course I should have known better.

Rule number one, which I've read in several places: don't spend money to get into an affiliate program.

Except... After having said that, I do have to take part of it back: In order to be a successful affiliate, you should really know the product you're promoting. How else can you convince others to buy it? So you will actually have to buy some of those products, but that's different from being charged an up front fee and being tricked into upgrade after upgrade to get a higher and higher percentage of what turns out to be nothing.

Some programs are hybrids. The one I fell for seemed all legit and a fabulous deal. Some of the involved sub-programs are in fact quite legit. It's just that the program didn't deliver what it advertised, but required huge amounts of investments to work, maybe. There was also a more serious reason why it didn't work, to be explained in part two.

No names here - there are lots of others just like this one. I have scores of offers in my inbox, where I collect them for a research project. Some of those programs may well make their affiliates real cash. To help you figure out if that's the case, here are a few checks and balances that I wish I had done sooner, and that I recommend you do before you sign up:

a) Do you like their product? Can you stand behind it or would you be embarrassed if anyone knew you actually tried to sell this to someone.

And no, I'm not talking about naughty stuff. Just things like way overpriced hosting services and multi-level marketing schemes whose main products seem to be people "under" you who will be making money for you if only you sign up - for the platinum level upgraded version of their program.

b) Beware of urgency. Legitimate affiliate marketing programs will gladly wait for you to check out their products at your leisure before you sign up to represent them. In fact, they will encourage you to do so, maybe even insist. Anyone who tells you to "urgently go there" in email after email should be approached with caution.

But let's say it does sound awfully tempting and you're willing to give it a chance. Fair enough.

Part two of this article will feature another major flaw in the program discussed here. It will also give you more strategies to help you figure out if a program is worth the investment before you pour too much money into it. After all, it might be for real. But then again, maybe not