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Affiliate Marketing

One of the easiest ways to enter the world of internet marketing is through affiliate marketing.   Affiliate marketing is way of making money on the internet, by selling someone else’s product, on which you are paid a commission, if and when your marketing of their product leads to a sale.    Essentially, you become an affiliate for the merchant who sells goods and services on the web.   You sell these products through what is called an affiliate program.  They are also sometimes called associate programs, or revenue sharing programs.  Affiliate marketing is huge, and results in billions of dollars of online sales each year.

The logistics of becoming an affiliate for a company is very straightforward. You simply fill out an affiliate agreement, which states the terms of your commission, when you’re paid, how much you’re paid and various other terms.  Then you’re sent a special link that is an id that is unique to you and is the way the company tracks what is bought through your link.    When someone buys, you are credited with the sell.

There two main ways to make money with affiliate programs:

PAY-PER-SALE
When someone buys a product or service through your affiliate link, the merchant pays you a percentage of the sale.

PAY-PER-LEAD
Flat fee payment for each qualified lead that you send to the merchant’s site through your affiliate link, when and if the user actually signs up through your link by giving their contact information.

To be an affiliate marketer, you must become comfortable with technology, if you’re not already, or….you must at least be willing to learn.
The following merchants have hundreds of affiliate programs between
them:

http://www.cj.com/
http://www.linkshare.com/
http://www.clickbank.com/
http://www.leadcrunch.com/
http://www.clixgalore.com/
http://www.performics.com/
http://www.affiliatetraders.com/
http://www.fineclicks.com/
http://www.websponsors.com/
http://www.shareasale.com/
http://www.quinstreet.com/
http://www.darkblue.com/

For more information on getting started in affiliate marketing, go to:
http://www.associateprograms.com

So once you have your products ready how do you market them?  How do you let the world know about your online business?  There are some really great resources.   Here are a couple of forums that you can go to learn all there is to know about internet marketing.

http://www.warriorforum.com/forum
http://www.sitepoint.com
http://forums.digitalpoint.com