Step One - Find a company with a product or service you have some knowledge of, or passion for. Don't take on a product or service that you have neither knowledge of, nor passion for. There is too much competition out there that may cause you to fail. Normally you will sign up at the company's website. If they don't manage their own affiliate programs you might be registering at an affiliate management site such as Commission Junction or ClickBank. There, you will be given your own unique ID# as an affiliate of the company which will allow you to sell its products online through its affiliate program.

Step Two - Take advantage of any promotional tools that the affiliate program may have. This will reduce the time you would have to spend in making your own. Most good companies will have a variety of marketing tools for you. Immerse yourself in the details of the product or service. In fact, the best plan would be for you to join as a customer and use the product or service, as this may afford you an insight into the product and company which most of the other affiliates will not have, and would give you a competitive edge to attract buyers.

Step Three - Link the company's site to your own blog or website, including your affiliate ID# in the ad so that you can be given credit for each sale. When people click on your blog or website, they will see the advertisement for the product or service you're representing and when they click the link to go to the company website, you will be given credit if they buy the product or service.

Step Four - Market yourself through your blog or website. You can write interesting and personal messages with a blog. You can also heighten their relevance in search engine returns by keyword enhancing. It's one of the best ways to "soft sell" interested parties in your affiliate program items. If you don't want to use a blog, set up a website. Successful websites are low-key in design using low graphics and light colors.

Another avenue of marketing is writing articles about the product or service you're selling. Post a product review style on any of the free article databases and include a link back to your site.

Step 5 - Keep track of all the Affiliate Programs you have signed up for, with special emphasis on which ad or article is giving the best conversion, i.e., which is sending most BUYERS to the company's website.

Concentrate on the best conversion rates, and TEST, TEST, TEST, your ads by tweaking them and measuring how the conversion rate changes.

When a sale is made, you will be given credit as long as your affiliate ID# was associated with the sale. If you market hard and consistently, you stand to make a good deal of money online through affiliate programs. That's the sheer beauty of using online affiliate programs.

Finally, you should now be ready to make money online with affiliate programs by signing up for some of the ones you are drawn to, but make sure you "do your homework" and research them well. It's not too late to get in on one of the fastest and easiest moneymaking opportunities you can find to make money online.