Have you been shopping for a car lately? Did you buy one? If so, how do you know you have the best model and the best deal?

Shopping has become more and more complex. With the advent of online opportunities, that complexity has multiplied many times over.

And if you’re looking to start an affiliate marketing business online, the decisions can be overwhelming. They tell you to focus on eBay, no, Adsense, no, start an affiliate program, no…

According to Barry Schwarz in “The Paradox of Choice, Why More Is Less”, we buy more and enjoy less.

So what are you going to do about it? Mr. Schwarz gives us 5 rules to live by.

1) “We would be better off accepting certain voluntary restrictions on our freedom of choice, rather than rebelling against them.”

Here’s the deal. You could spend 12 hours a day trying to figure out which of the many possibilities presented to you is the best. But, if all you are doing is analysis, you have no production. Therefore, there is no affiliate marketing online.

After all, the path to profit online is to learn, produce, analyze, automate, and repeat. If you’re analyzing but don’t go to the next step, you’ll never earn a dime.

2) “It would be better to look for what is ‘good enough’ instead of looking for the best…” Take your time in choosing the route you will use to market online. But don’t take too long. Then take your time choosing what tools you need to start producing the websites, audios, videos, and other products you’ll use in your online affiliate marketing. But, don’t take too long. Settle for ‘good enough’ and go with it. You can modify it later.

3) “We would be better off if we lowered our expectations about the results of decisions.”

Don’t be discouraged if your initial efforts don’t produce the next Microsoft. Not only is it important to have reasonable expectations, but you should also feel encouraged that you’ve made progress.

You may remember that Thomas Edison tried thousands of possible combinations of pattern, filament, and gas to design a light bulb. He was interviewed at one point and asked if he was discouraged that he was failing. His response was that he was not failing, he had discovered more than a thousand ways not to make a light bulb.

If all you do is figure out a thousand ways not to make money with affiliate marketing online, you could write a bestseller documenting it.

4) “We would be better off if the decisions we made were not reversible.”

Now that rule is hard to swallow. If we chose to make money on eBay and failed in the first month or two, it sure would be easy to try our hand at AdSense next. But, this is crucial. You need to trust your first research and impressions.

When you chose your course, you did so intelligently based on good research. Don’t throw all that overboard to start over on another course. If you do, you’ll be starting over, learning how not to make money on the web in another area!

5) “We would be better off paying less attention to what those around us are doing.”

It is important to keep an eye on what is happening in your field of online activity. But, it must be done out of the corner of your eye.

This goes back to rule number one. If all you’re doing is following the trends in your area and you’re not producing on your own, you’ll know a lot about making money, but you won’t make anything.

If you take these five rules seriously, you’ll be better off, not only with your success, but you’ll be able to sleep better at night.