There are many ways you can earn money online. From displaying ads on a blog or website and earning a fee per thousand impressions or per click, getting paid for writing articles and reviews, even getting paid to keep discussions going on some online forums, online money making opportunities are being created all the time but one of the most rewarding ways to earn money online is affiliate marketing.

A good affiliate marketing programme is usually free to join; if you are being asked to pay a fee before joining one of these exciting opportunities, this usually means you are about to enter a scam: do not join affiliate programmes that ask you to pay for a fee; what you are looking for here are smart ways to earn money online, not stupid ways to spend your hard earned money!

Being a member of an affiliate marketing programme means that you don't need to have any special skills in order to earn money. With an online affiliate programme, you don't have to handle any products, you don't need to be a qualified accountant in order to keep track of the money earned, you don't even need to talk to anyone on the phone or in person. You are being given a link containing your own affiliate ID for people to click on; if you get lucky and someone interested in a product clicks on your affiliate link and buys it, you earn a commission.

There is a wide variety of affiliate programmes such as Casino Rewards, Amazon or even EBay; some pay via PayPal while others mail you a check once you have reached the minimum payout level; payout levels can also vary tremendously from one website to another: some websites allow you to cash in as soon as you have earned $50 but you will have to earn as much as $200 with others before you can take a pay check home. My favourite affiliate marketing programme is Clickbank: with up to 75% commission on sales and a minimum payout level that can be adjusted to your own needs, this has to be one of the best online affiliate marketing programmes available at the moment.

Once you have signed up and set up your user ID and password, you can select products you want to promote and earn commission from. If you are an expert in a certain domain, it is a good idea to select products related to your niche; if you own a website about parenting for example, you could select parenting guides: you could either display a code on your website advertising one or more parenting books or for more impact on your visitors, write reviews about your chosen affiliate products with your affiliate ID included in them.

Of course there are restrictions on how you can earn with an affiliate marketing programme: don't expect to just join and make sales without any work on your part! Clickbank is a very popular affiliate programme and there is harsh competition between all its members. If you choose to display ads, banners or reviews that include your affiliate ID on a website or blog, you must work hard at promoting your site and bring as many visitors to it as you possibly can.

One great tool I came across recently and that works very well for Clickbank affiliates is a portal. CB Portals are free websites that contain all 10000 products currently on the Clickbank marketplace; the great thing about these websites is that not only they are ready-made, professionally designed and come with free hosting, but also all the products for sale on each portal already contain the portal's owner affiliate ID, so no more tweaking is needed, and you don't waste any more time selecting the best product to promote: anyone who finds your portal and buys any Clickbank product trough it allows you to earn a commission.

While some affiliates hardly ever make a sale, others earn thousands of dollars each month doing affiliate marketing. This is one of the easiest ways to earn money online if you are willing to spend a bit of time promoting the websites where your affiliate links can be found. If you have been thinking of joining an affiliate programme but never quite got around it, there has never been a better time for affiliate marketing than right now.