Often people will ask me how I’ve made money from my other blogs in the past. My response used to be ‘Affiliate Marketing’ and in a way it still is. The thing is I realised many people haven’t actually been exposed to Affiliate Marketing before and therefore are still none the wiser. If you are already doing this then this post is not for you. It is meant to be a quick introduction to those who may not have come across it before.

The Affiliate Marketing Process in a Nutshell

1. Affiliate Marketer(You) introduces Customer to Product Sales Material
2. Customer buys Product after being introduced by You
3. You get paid a percentage of the purchase price.

Essentially you are advertising for the company to your existing customers, or in the case of a blog your existing readers. If these customers actually go on to purchase you are then rewarded for your effort. The main difference between this and most standard banner type adverts is that each potential customers actions are tracked so you only make money if somebody you refers makes a purchase.

Even though you only get paid when somebody buys something this is usually a better option that displaying adverts that pay for each click as you will generally earn a percentage of the sale rather than just a few cents for a click. This means you can make good money from just a few people visiting the website and making a purchase rather than requiring hundreds of people to click through an advert to make the same amount.

There are thousands of Affiliate Marketing Online Program options. You can promote for almost anyone from the small business owner who is selling a couple hundred online guides to the monster companies like Amazon selling Millions of different products every year.

Choosing an Affiliate Marketing Online Program

When deciding on which Affiliate Marketing Online Program is for you there are some things you will want to keep in mind:

• Product is Relevant to your Market – You only make money when a sale is made, therefore the products you decide Must Be relevant to the people you deal with.
• The Product Should be Excellent Quality - Not only will you want to keep good relations with these people that you are referring but you will want to keep Good Karma by only offering Great products. Even better if you actually use the products your are promoting as well.
• Amount Per Sale -Though you shouldn’t base your decisions just because there is a good commission it is important to realize this; If you can only refer 10 people a week you will generally want to get high commissions to maximize the opportunity. Where as if you are referring thousands of people it won’t matter as much if you only make a dollar or two per sale.

To start, you will have to sign up with the company’s program. Often you will find links to do this at the bottom of commercial websites. Alternatively if you are looking more generally you can just search for something like “_________ Affiliate Program”, obviously filling in the blanks with your subject of choice. Depending on their methods they will give you information on how to register.

Once you are signed up with an Affiliate Program it is time to start promoting! The ways you can do this are only limited by your imagination. Well sometimes by restrictions the company sets as well. Things I have done in the past include:

• Displaying Banner Adverts on your Site or Blog
• Writing Articles that Link to the Product
• Creating Info Products that Link to the Product
• E-Mailing a list of past customers (not spamming)
• Much More…

For further ideas you only have to think about things like forums and message boards to get the creative juices flowing. Promotion can be as passive or active as you decide.

So that pretty much sums up the Affiliate Marketing Online Program and how you can make it work for you. Hopefully this has answered any questions.