Make Money Online – Affiliate Marketing

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is responsible for billions of dollars worth of Internet sales each and every year. Almost any type of product or service you find online has its own affiliate program. That means that there is a huge opportunity to make money online with affiliate marketing. Anything from TVs, pet supplies, software, or e-books could bring commission to an affiliate marketer.

The businesses that have products to sell online can keep their advertising costs down by outsourcing their advertising efforts to affiliates. The majority of these businesses do this through affiliate networks. Instead of having their own affiliate program specifically for their products, they partner with companies like Commission Junction, Shareasale, Hydra, Pepperjam Network, Clickbank, and the list goes on.

Sales generated by affiliate marketers are tracked via their affiliate link. It contains their affiliate ID, which shows the company who to pay when a sale is made. Most affiliate networks (80%) pay their affiliates commission by CPS (Cost Per Sale). Many of these networks also operate by CPA (Cost Per Action). This provides an opportunity for affiliate marketers to get paid a flat rate when consumers buy a product, order a free trial of a product, or even when they submit contact information, such as name, email, address, and phone.

So how do you get started in affiliate marketing?

Most affiliates start out their career by purchasing an affiliate guide of some sort. They come in all shapes and sizes, from e-books, to Web-based membership sites, videos, forums, and so on. The majority of these affiliate guides come from a place called Clickbank.

As I said before, Clickbank is one of the most popular affiliate networks online. It has a digital product library of well over 10,000, including eBooks, software, and other non-physical products. Clickbank is where most affiliates get started, because the affiliate guides that are sold on Clickbank usually teach people how to make money with Clickbank. Apart from that fact, Clickbank products can be anything from weight loss eBooks, to football betting software.

Information sells. Clickbank has paid over $1.2 billion to its affiliates, and that’s proof that lots of money can be made as a Clickbank affiliate marketer. In fact, I’ve been making money online full-time since October of 2008. I started out slow, but now I’m very comfortable with the commission checks I receive every two weeks.

The cool thing about making money online as an affiliate marketer is that once you’ve set up a successful stream of income, all you have to do is occasionally revise it to maximize your profits.

What do I recommend?

Michael Jones released a new affiliate marketing guide in April of 2009. It is the most current, effective way to get started making money online with Clickbank.

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