Affiliate as a term or word means partner, associate, to join, or to connect. In Internet lingo to become an online affiliate means to join a company as part of their sales force. You sell their products for a commission; in order to promote your success, the company will give you all the possible support that you might need. This includes a free website, tools for designing your website, marketing tools, and often even free advertising space. This translates into an opportunity to earn money with an online business where you have not invested one dime.

How does this work?

In simple terms when you become an online affiliate, you actually take up the job to sell the product or products of that company. However, the virtual world is quite different from the real world and selling products via the Internet is not the same as selling products door to door. Selling through the Internet involves having some sort of magnetism that pulls people with affinity for the product to visit the company's website. A certain percentage of these people who visit the website end up making a purchase and with every completed sale you earn a commission.

Therefore, in order to earn a decent income, you as an online affiliate need to work hard to channel targeted traffic to the company's website (the website that they hosted for you free of cost). The task of routing people who are interested in the product to the website in the hope that they buy the product is what online affiliate is all about. This routing is done with the help of banners, buttons, hyperlinks, advertisements, etc.

As a beginner in the world of affiliate marketing you could make a decent income by using sale letters and newsletters. However, if you want a serious income which would encourage you quit your 9 to 5 job, you would need a website; a well-designed, user friendly website. Though most large affiliate programs would offer you a free website complete with customizable templates and all, you would still need to have some basic idea about it before taking the plunge. As an online affiliate you might not be required to invest a penny, but you would need to put in a lot of effort. What you gain in finances, you need to compensate with the effort that is needed to be invested in the venture.

As an online affiliate your main role would be to get people who are interested in what your company is selling to the website. It is important that you are able to filter only those people who show interest in the product and not everybody who is on the Net. This is achieved with the help of advertisements, banners and buttons on websites where content pertaining to your products is displayed.

For example, if you are on a website that describes cats, placing an ad regarding cat food (your product for the sake of this example) is a good idea because those people who love their cats would be interested to see what you have to offer as cat food for their pets. As people buy the product you advertised for, the company sends you a check with your commission. In order to optimize your earning as an online affiliate, you need to constantly upgrade and promote your (free) website so it would attract targeted traffic.