Affiliate Marketing 

What is affiliate marketing and How do you make money at it?

Affiliate marketing is all about promoting other peoples products. There's no direct selling involved. It's the product owner's job to sell the product, it's the affiliate marketers job to pre-sell the product by using effective promotional strategies.

If your promotions are successful and you make a sale, you receive a commission.

Affiliate marketing is ideal for most internet marketers because you don't need a product of your own, there's no shipping or inventory headaches to worry about or customer services problems to deal with.

Actually making good money at affiliate marketing requires first choosing quality affiliate programs, creating a simple but professional website,  writing compelling text and building trust with your potential buyers.  These are the affiliate strategies that will help you pre-sell your potential customers and make the final sale. If you can't do these things and do them correctly you're not likely to make affiliate sales.

But can you actually make money with affiliate marketing?

Absolutely, I do it every day! And after having been involved with several internet business models prior to affiliate marketing, this is the one I truly enjoy and make the most money at.

How you earn money through affiliate marketing depends on how the affiliate program is set up. There are typically 3 ways:

Pay Per Click - Any time a potential customer leaves your affiliate website by "clicking" on your affiliate link that leads them to the merchant's website. Money is then deposited in your affiliate account. The amount of money deposited depends on the what's in the affiliate agreement.

Pay Per Lead - Any time a potential customer leaves your affiliate website by "clicking" on a link that leads them to complete a registration form or register at the merchants website. Money is then deposited into your affiliate account. The amount of money deposited depends on the what's in the affiliate agreement.

Pay Per Sale - Any time a potential customer leaves your affiliate website by "clicking" on a link that leads them to the merchant's site where they make a purchase. A percentage, or commission, is deposited into the affiliate's account depending on what's in the affiliate agreement.

Whether you choose a pay per click, pay per lead or pay per sale option doesn't matter it's using the promotion strategies that are the most successful that will earn you the most money.

TIP: Always be on the look out for residual income affiliate programs. These are programs that pay you consistently month after month. For example, things like subscriptions or monthly services. As long as the customer stays with the service you continue to get a commission. This creates consistent income for you as an affiliate marketer. Not all affiliate programs offer residual income but it's something to be on the lookout for when choosing affiliate programs.  

A Few Final words...

If you are new to affiliate marketing or perhaps aren't making money with your affiliate marketing business let me say that before you do anything get ahold of Rosalind Gardner's Super Affiliate Handbook.  This guide focuses on the aspects of affiliate marketing that actually get you doing the things that make you the most money, it's what most other guides and online training neglect. 

Unless you want to follow suit with the thousands of other affiliate marketers who gave up, get the Super Affiliate Handbook -  Read it and do what it says!