stubsy:I think affiliate schemes do work but you need traffic, I would'nt pay for traffic unless I was taking details from people or offering something to make them come back to my site.
If you don't pay for traffic you are extremely unlikely to make money. The trick is to pay a small amount for targetted traffic, then make sure your website is very convincing.
A good example is Kieron who is a forum member. Kieron runs UKoffer.com, an extremely successful affiliate website. Each month I believe he spends hundreds of thousands of pounds on Google Adwords. He makes several times this in profits each month!
Start small, with one or two affiliate offers, make sure you don't spend too much, but learn how to write your ads. This is very important, then make sure you have a good converting website. When you have got it right a couple of times and start making money, repeat, repeat, repeat!!