Hey Jim,
everyone makes mistakes when starting out. That's okay. Before buying into anything always check the credibility of the merchant. See if the merchant has its own blog or site or giving out his email address so you can contact him later.
You mentioned opt-in list in your post. I couldn't help noticing it because just recently i learned that to grow your affiliate business you need to build a opt-in list of you visitors which are basically are your customers.
webdev
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