My experience was similar to that of “gordo the lordo.” Plenty of clicks but just a few orders. Getting clicks isn’t hard. What kind of clicks? That’s the $1,000,000 question.

As a search engine advertiser, your task is to capture the clicks of consumers who have made a buying decision or are very close. These clicks will make money for you. The clicks of people who are “just browsing” will cost you money. You have to be a student of online search behavior.

You capture money-making clicks by finding highly relevant keywords and writing focused ads. How hard can it be? Get your ads up and running, tweak them, and watch the money roll in. You only need basic English skills and common sense. A degree in advertising or English is not going to help.

I would encourage anyone to try it because you may discover that you have the knack. By spending $500 or so, you should be able to get an idea how well you might do. Don’t make the mistake I made, which was to let my ads capture several hundred clicks without getting any orders. I kept thinking “the orders will kick in.” They didn’t. Stop your ads after 200-300 clicks and wait for results. (Even 50 clicks are too many with retail sites.) You can either tweak the ad (if it’s close to break-even) or abandon it and try something else. Tweaking wouldn’t have helped my ads, which earned pennies for every dollar spent on clicks.

You are playing the keyword market on Google. Some keywords sell for $20 per click and more. Search engine advertisers don’t get caught up in keyword “bubbles.” They are only after potent “value” keywords that sell for 25 cents or less.

The keyword market is like a gold rush. Everywhere you look the ground is torn up by hordes of stampeding prospectors. You wander far and wide hoping to find a stone that hasn’t been turned. How many thousands of other guys are out there trying the same thing? Good luck.

You never know. You might have the knack. Affiliate Millions gives you everything you need to know to get started. When I joined my first affiliate program and set up my first ads, I had the book open and followed it not step-by-step but word-for-word. It’s just the kind of “excruciating” detail a beginner needs.

Mr. Borelli explains how to evaluate the earnings potential of an affiliate program. The profit, or course, depends on your revenue per click. An adgroup for $20 books may not be the way to go.

Should you actually make money, there is a chapter on campaign finance. You have to manage your cash flow to optimize performance. If another book on online advertising has this kind of chapter, I haven’t seen it.

Mr. Borelli has set up the Affiliate Millions website for “prospectors.” The only item listed for sale is the book. There is a free monthly newsletter. There are no ads. Mr. Borelli answers questions on the site’s discussion board. If you are at all familiar with the “get rich online” racket you know how exceptional this is. Such sites are usually crammed with ads and have little useful information.

Mr. Borelli’s advice is a bit sketchy and vague. He has developed a magic formula for writing ads that attract buyers while somehow discouraging clicks of the merely curious. He’s not about to share his ad-writing insights. His only comment is “Content is King.” OK.

Evidently, if Mr. Borelli were to provide even broad hints, everyone would catch on and put him out of business. You get all the sizzle but no steak. On his website, Mr. Borelli offers to critique ads sent to him by acolytes. Take him up on the offer. Maybe you too will discover those hypnotic buzzwords that make the difference between zero and hero.

Mr. Borelli makes no promises that prospectors will get rich. He merely suggests that it is possible. He ends the opening chapter with “Take it step-by-step and read the chapters that follow, and you’ll stand a good chance of becoming an Affiliate Millionaire yourself.” If he starts the book by saying your chances are practically nil, no one will continue reading.

Like “gordo,” I’m amazed that anyone could make millions at this. A million dollars in a year is $2,700 a day. You would have to consider yourself pretty successful with $2,700 a day in SALES, never mind commissions. You would have to strike it rich with multiple million-dollar campaigns. You would have to come up with new ones all the time.

Think of the millions in revenue Mr. Borelli is generating for the companies he advertises for. They should throw a party for him.