Affiliate Marketing Basics

Affiliate marketing is simply advertising someone else's product and splitting the revenue from the sale. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, it is! There is some legwork required; however diligence pays off in the end. Affiliate marketing has been on the Internet for many years and is becoming more and more popular as more people are finding out there is a ton of money to made. It does not require a large investment, however there is a bit of work that goes into the initial process. The good news is that once your advertising strategies are set up, your business is basically on autopilot and the only effort required is some routine maintenance.

Think about it, you don't even have to create your own products. You find a merchant that has products that you are interested in marketing. There are even sites that have an affiliate marketplace such as Clickbank, Commission Junction and Linkshare; plus it's free to sign up. Just create your account and start to promote. You will want to find merchants that have high commission products, products that have a high conversion rate, as well as products that have some marketing materials and support. Also, you are not bound to one product. You can advertise, promote, and sell just about anything, to just about anyone. You will earn anywhere between 20-50% commissions and when the sale is made, you get paid. Your job is simply to drive traffic to the merchant's products (website).

There is no such thing as a shortcut to earning the big bucks, period. Not in affiliate marketing or anything else. You must research your market and find a niche, preferably something that you like, love, or maybe just want to learn more about. There are important and helpful tools found on the Internet. Use search engines, blogs, and forums, find out from other successful affiliates what works.

Just like any legitimate business, affiliate marketing does require an investment of time and money. Typically the more you work at it, the better your business will be. This includes researching, reading, implementing, listening, watching, etc. The more you learn about affiliate marketing, the better your business will be, and ultimately the more money you will make.

Affiliate marketing is not only a fast growing industry that is fairly easy to get into; but it's also one of the best ways of making money online in a relatively short time. If you are looking for extra income, or you just want to leave your present job altogether, then affiliate marketing deserves your attention. The journey is well worth the reward!

Michelle Scott is a successful entrepreneur, both in the offline and online arenas. To read more about affiliate marketing, please click here: http://staraffiliatemarketing.com/