Have you heard of that term before? If you are new on the Internet, it is an increasingly popular form of online marketing, in which a website (yours) that refers business to the website (merchant's) in turn to get paid by commission. Referrals (you) are steered to merchant's site via a specially coded banner or link, which appears on sites that have agreed to send business.



In the other words, it is simply means selling a product or service through commission basis. It is online selling, unlike the physical selling that most people dread.

Based on the practice, it will be easier to start to sell other people's product or service if you have your very own website. You must not ignore this opportunity because it can give you a considerable sum of money if you know what it is all about and how it is work.

Here are some important things that you should know before you join an affiliate program:

1. Types of affiliate programs

There are essential five types of affiliate programs, which include the pay per sale, pay per click, pay per lead, bounty, and two tiers.

Pay-Per-Sale means once a customer buys a particular item, a merchant will pay you a commission. It is also know as Partnership and Percentage Partners programs. These programs pay either a fixed amount or a percentage of sales that generated by your links.

Pay-Per-Click type means a merchant pays you every time a customer visits his or her site, and it doesn't matter if the customer made a purchase or not. If they buy something from merchants' site, on the other hand, you will earn more. With a pay per click affiliate program, the pay is at the range of .05 dollars to .15 dollars.

In Pay-Per-Lead programs, you earn a set amount whenever your customer fills out a survey or requests a quote or some information.

In Bounty programs, you will earn a finder's fee if you are able to refer a customer. However, if customer makes any purchases in the future, you will no longer receive any commission.

Two Tiered programs mean that if you are able to make direct sales, you get a commission; and if your sub-affiliates generate sales, you will get a commission out of their sales as well.

No matter what types of affiliate programs you interested to join, things to bear in mind is doing business as an affiliate is about giving your visitors valuable information so they can make good product choices. In order to target a market effectively, give them what they want, and you'll be rewarded handsomely with a percentage of the sale.

2. The benefits

One of the great things of being as an affiliate and working with those affiliate programs is that they are 'no-brainers'! You do not need to take care and worry about the problems, such as administrative problems, brokers, wholesalers, employees, technical support, process orders, warranties, customer service, credit card charges, shipping and inventory and so forth.

You don't need to stay in front of your computer to keep track of the site, you're free to go for a walk or a vacation etc. All you have to do is post a text link that with your affiliate ID coded and starts to refer people and earn a percentage for every sale that you generate.

3. Questions Should Ask

Here is my piece of advice - before you get to involve with any affiliate program, better to spend bit of your time to study the merchants and do some certain area analysis.

Thus, following are some questions you should ask before you decide to join the program;

- What kind of compensation is this affiliate program offer? Are you getting actual cash, or, are you getting credits for your product?

- Is there any set up or registration fee for join the program? If so, how much is it?

- How long has this affiliate program been in the place?

- Is there any associate tracking software that affiliate program using? If so, then what kind of associate tracking software they are using?

- Do referrals get credit for EVERY single sale that they referred? And how they tracked referrals' account?

- If a visitor comes to this affiliate program website and he or she does not buy the product at the first time, then leaves, later, he or she comes back again buy the product, how associates get credit from it?

- Under what kind of circumstances can this affiliate program remove you as an affiliate?

- What are the policies that listed down in the affiliate agreement? Do you have to take special steps to get out of the agreement if there anything happen?

After weighting all these things, it is time to decide if you will join an affiliate program or not. Once you decide to join, the company will give you a URL or a link. This link is for you to use on your website or your promotion campaigns to let your visitors be able to gain access to merchant's website.

It is also allow merchants to monitor your selling statistic in order to pay your commission on time.

Affiliate programs make money. The internet is just there waiting for interested people who are willing to venture into different business opportunities. If you are capable and can become an effective affiliate, you should act now and join an affiliate program.