Affiliate marketing is a much-coveted career path in the business of online moneymaking. After all, it’s convenient, it looks easy enough and everybody’s doing it. But make no mistake: it’s a virtual jungle out there.

On various stages of their involvement with the affiliate marketing channel, merchants look in the direction of launching affiliate programs for the same products on multiple networks. The most common reasoning for this being that by so doing they will expand their affiliate reach, significantly improving chances of recruiting powerful affiliates across different networks.

Imagine that you are shopping at a department store and you ask a salesperson for men’s summer sandals and he takes you to the main entrance and drops you off. Your reaction?

There’s a good chance you’re frustrated. You probably think less of the store for its poor service. You’re probably going to leave without buying any shoes. You might even tell your friends and family not to shop there.

His speech is peppered with "awesome" and "ready to rock and roll," as if he were fresh out of high school. He's only 32 but he feels luck has a lot to do with his good fortune. He took what was basically an idea to sell jam and turned it into a successful online marketing company.

As the CEO of TradeDoubler - a Swedish performance network with a vast European presence - William Cooper has his eye on global expansion. TradeDoubler, with its local offices in 15 countries across Europe, is known as the biggest affiliate marketing network in the U.K. Cooper was appointed president and CEO in March of 2007, riding a wave of first-quarter revenue for 2007, up 30 percent. Previously, Cooper, a six-year veteran of TradeDoubler, was COO of the company for a year. Before that, he oversaw the company's U.K. operations.

Many merchants and affiliates develop very close relationships with their account representative at the networks. These network reps often take on many roles including problem solvers, helpers, mentors, sounding boards, cheerleaders, and sometimes they end up being cherished friends.

"You spammed me," I said with a smile to the affiliate network manager standing next to me as we posed for a picture together at the last Affiliate Summit. Her smile suddenly disappeared.

Kind, compassionate and understanding person that I am, I fervently hoped to hear an honest, if not apologetic reply that would give me the slightest reason to consider ever doing business with her network's merchants.

Describing eBay as a commerce website is like saying Elvis was a singer. The 11-year-old company that began as a virtual flea market similarly has become an international phenomenon, spurring the creation of cottage industries and sustaining thousands of small businesses.

And despite being one of the Internet's forebears, the company is in many aspects just getting started. As eBay grows, so will the myriad of obvious and less-apparent methods that marketers can use to profit in, around and through eBay.

Companies are outsourcing affiliate managers to fuel online marketing programs.

Commission Junction's Lisa Riolo steps into a new role with some familiar responsibilities.

As Commission Junction's senior vice president of business development, Lisa Riolo is responsible for driving revenue for the sales and business development teams. While she's not technically filling Todd Crawford's shoes, Riolo will be the new face of the affiliate network, taking on many of the same challenges as the former vice president of sales, who left in February.