The big positive about affiliate marketing is that it allows you to earn an income without actually having to create and advertise your own product. By becoming an affiliate marketer, you can collect a commission every time someone follows your affiliate link to the site of the actual product seller and makes a purchase.

The size of your commission will vary depending on the product for which you are an affiliate, and your methods of promoting it, but they can run as high as 75%.

If you have a blog and would like to start monetizing it by becoming an affiliate, there is a trio of affiliate program providers which you should investigate. They are Commission Junction, Click Bank, and Link Share.

In order to maximize the percentage of the commissions you receive, you should sign up with either Click Bank or Commission Junction, which set up affiliate programs for all the big membership websites and vendors of informational products, and those programs are usually the most lucrative. Standard commissions range from 25% to 75%.

Should you choose Click Bank as the place to promote your affiliate programs, beware of the payment threshold. It can be set as high as $100, meaning that Click Bank will not pay you any of your commission earnings until you have accumulated $100. If you would prefer to get small checks every couple of weeks, you'll have to change the threshold setting yourself.

If you want to find some affiliate programs with huge audiences, Link Share is the place to go. They will allow you to affiliate yourself with some of the biggest names around, like Walmart, PetSmart, and even Apple.

Although their affiliate commission are considerably lower than those offered by Commission Junction and Click Bank, at around 5% to 15%, the chances of someone buying multiple or big ticket items from those vendors is much higher. You can expect the companies which pay commissions through Link Share to issue payments once a month.

Don't see any companies whose products you'd like to promote among those offered by Click Bank, Commission Junction, or Link Share? You have the option of being an affiliate marketer for Google's AdSense and AdWords, or for Ebay. Both have commission structures which will make it worth your while.