Affiliate marketing commission theft is real and could be just one of the reasons you are not seeing a profit from your hard work. An online thief could visit your website and replace your affiliate links with their own links. When a sale is made, the thief will get a commission and you will receive nothing in return. Another problem with affiliate links is the fact that some people do not want you to receive money when they buy something online.

To get around this, they will remove your affiliate link to go directly to the main page of a company. To stop both of these money losing problems, you should engage in link cloaking technology. A simple internet search will bring up different ways to do it along with programs and codes that may be helpful to you.

Affiliate marketing commission structures is another topic that you should become very intimate with. If you don't understand the structures, you may choose the wrong one when asked to make a decision. The first structure is widely used in most affiliate programs and it is the 1-tier option. You will generally get paid whenever someone signs up to receive a service or product and it is simple to understand.

A 2-tier structure can often make you extra money on the side. It begins with you making a sale, but if someone were to sign up under your affiliate link to become a reseller or affiliate themselves, you will also make money from every sale that they brought in. The multilevel tier system can go a long ways in some affiliate programs, but it can often be very hard to make money due to the fact that even with 20 signups you will be lucky if even one of those decided to actually work to make money from their own affiliate links.

This last tip deals with your earnings and how to compute them. You have to know and understand how your commissions will be earned to know how much you should expect. While most affiliate programs are honest, some will attempt to take a little bit of money where ever they can and by doing this they will be short changing you and fellow affiliates.

Making sense of your commissions can become difficult depending on what programs you are using. A pay per click (PPC) program like Adsense can be hard to keep up with, due to the secrecy that is in place. You may never know how much money you are receiving per click and for what specific keyword and terms.

A pay per lead structure is often easier to understand because most companies will have a set rate. For instance, you might be paid $20 for each signup and you will instantly know if you are not being paid the correct amount per person. To receive further help, you should stop by forums that deal with making money online as many advanced affiliate users stop by to help answer questions.