Affiliate marketing is not a new concept, it has been on the scene for over ten years now. But only recently have average everyday folks started to look at it as a legitimate way to make residual income that comes automatically. Basically, you are selling useful products that are offered online, which can be anything from televisions to articles, and receiving a commission for each sale. You are given payments based on a special affiliate link that sends a report to the owners website that you directed the paying customer to them.



The first step to making cash as an affiliate marketer online is to set up an account with a network, these give you access to a wide range of offers you can promote with just one click and all the payment are managed by the network so you can trust them. Clickbank is a payment intermediary that most ebook marketers choose to deal with for information goods. Clickbank makes it easy to set up affiliate associations and receive payments automatically.

Some people do not like Clickbank as you have to wait 2 weeks to get your money in the form of a cheque. They pay regularly and you can trust you will get your money, but if you are looking for more accessible cash then paydotcom.com allows their merchants to pay you by PayPal.

Once you are up and running on an affiliate network then you need to browse the site for websites and products that match the area you want to market in. Most of the networks have statistics that allow you to pinpoint popular sites. This means you can direct traffic to sites that you know will convert them into customers and make you money. Don't avoid the sites with less statistics though as they may just be new, and you could get in before other affiliates and promote that site first before it become popular.

The number of returns is also a consideration but unfortunately that information is harder to find out. You do not want to align yourself with a horrible product that gets many complaints and poor feedback. Google the name of the site and see what people are saying about it, if it is positive you are probably alright.

Did you know you can set up and affiliate account with Amazon and sell all of their products for a commission? Imagine all the thousands of people flocking to that site constantly, if you could be the one to direct them then you could make some good money. You know the site is trustworthy and will pay you and you know the products are good quality.

The final element of making cash as an affiliate marketer is to get traffic to your affiliate page or link. Most affiliate marketers do this by creating websites that are full of articles setting their affiliate links inside those articles and other content. The subject matter draws visitors from search engines (with some additional work) who then see your offers and hopefully go through and buy things.

There is huge potential in affiliate marketing, you can reinvest profits into outsourcing tasks and allow your empire to grow. But first you have to make you first commission then you can thinking about building your empire. Go on relevant forums, and buy some products that explain everything to you and get started. You will make mistakes at first, but as long as you learn from them then each mistake is actually a step towards success. Good luck.