Affiliate marketing, simply stated, is the process of promoting products and/or services that others have created, and generating commissions form any sales stemming from your promotion efforts. For many Web-based companies, affiliate marketers account for a lion's share of their total sales, so they are eager to enlist new and motivated people to join their “sales force.”

This isn't like “selling” in the traditional off-line sense, where you sometimes have to make a lot of phone calls or knock on a lot of doors to reach customers. Affiliate marketing can be done entirely on-line. You may never have to directly interact with a customer at all.

If that sounds far-fetched, it isn't at all; affiliate marketing is probably one of the most down-to-earth ways around to make a regular on-line income. Once you have a basic understanding of what it is, you'll see why.

Companies that have affiliate programs provide those who sign on as affiliates with a special URL to use when promoting their product. To obtain your own affiliate link, you complete a brief application with your name, address and other basic information, as well as how you would like to receive payment for sales. One of the fastest and most reliable methods of receiving payment on-line is through PayPal, which a lot of companies use to pay their affiliates.

When someone accesses the company's Web site by clicking your affiliate link, then makes a purchase, you are awarded commission from the sale. You may then be paid by check, although most affiliate programs prefer to send payment via an on-line payment processor such as PayPal.

So how do you use an affiliate link to locate and send potential customers to the site where the product or service is being sold? A few of the tried-and-true ways to promote affiliate links include:

1.They build Web sites on subject matters that would interest the same sorts of people who might buy the product, making sure their affiliate link is easily available throughout the site. If, for example, the product they are promoting as an affiliate is a gourmet dog biscuit, they would develop sites that would attract avid dog lovers.

2.Creating a blog that focuses on topics that would interest the kind of people who might buy the product. Using the vitamin example again, write a series of blog entries regarding the benefits of various vitamins that include your affiliate link

3.Writing and placing classified ads that you can place on other Web sites related to your product, or in e-mail newsletters (frequently referred to as “e-zines.”)

4.Writing short articles on subjects closely tied to your products. There are a number of article databases on the Web where you can post these articles for free. When people read them and click on your affiliate link, you earn commissions from any sales that result.

Finding affiliate programs is as easy as typing “be an affiliate” or “affiliate program” into any search engine. By doing so, you will soon discover the millions of opportunities out there for you to make money on-line through affiliate marketing.