You can earn money three different ways with affiliate marketing and in this article we will look at those.

1. Pay per click advertising is the first one we want to talk about. The Google answers program is the most successful affiliate pay per click program. You put some code on your website and when people click on an ad that is shown you earn a small commission.

This is the smallest commission that you will earn of the three different types of affiliate marketing, but it's also the easiest one to make money with.

The reason for that is you are not asking anybody to do anything other than click on an ad.

2. Pay per lead affiliate programs are what we will look at next. You get paid to supply leads to the merchant making this a little harder. The information that they require can vary from one program to the next. It could be as simple as getting a name and an email address, or could involve more information, including address, phone number, and other targeted marketing information.

Real estate is an example of a pay per lead program that can be extremely lucrative for you to supply leads to.

3. Finally let's talk about pay per sale. With this form of affiliate marketing you earn a commission every time a person buys a product from your affiliate website address. This requires a customer to actually open up their credit card and buy something.

For this reason, you will have a lower percentage of people who convert to a sale, but you will also earn more than you will and the other two forms of affiliate marketing commissions.

So how do you know which type of affiliate marketing is the best one to earn money with. Eventually you will probably be doing some form of all three. It could vary from one webpage to the next, even within a theme website.

There are people however that specialize only in PPC affiliate programs, or getting leads, or selling products such as e-books on Clickbank. It really becomes a personal choice in what you are comfortable with.

Regardless of which way you choose to do it affiliate marketing can earn you a very large income.