Affiliate Marketing programs come in all shapes and sizes.
There are those that are purely fictitious and never deliver what they promise to others that actually do present a great opportunity to make money online.
Deciphering between the ones that are real and the ones that are hype is not easy and it takes a good deal of due diligence and looking at it with a discerning eye.
Any Affiliate program that promises you that you will make a significant amount of money online, but you have to pay them a sizeable amount up front to be able to get the secrets of the affiliate program, I would stay away.
Why? Because by its nature affiliate programs are a way to promote someone else's products and get paid a commission for referring traffic or sales to the sponsor web site.
You should not have to pay for promoting someone else's products.
The honest sponsors will give you the material free that you can use in your campaigns.
Of course there are your own cost that includes such items as setting up a domain name and website along with marketing cost in accordance to your budget.
There is information that can enhance your affiliate marketing and they do cost extra.
But paying for these is logical, since your paying for proprietary information to make more money from your online business.
Once again some of this information is useful, others its not.
But its not easy to tell sometimes and its hit or miss.
In conclusion, there are good affiliate programs and you can get started in one with a minimal investment.
But like anything else the results will depend upon the amount of time and effort you put in.
Do not be deceived that you can make money without any work, at least not in the beginning anyway.
As your web sites matures it will take less effort.
But affiliate programs can make you money, just do your research and get started making money from home.