Most everyone who has an internet business has heard about affiliate marketing and how it is creating income streams for many people. While a few folks will make big money stumbling across a few of the hottest so-called tickets in town, most will earn a modest amount from various websites, selling merchandise with absolutely no inventory of their own.

For those who have been living outside the rest of the world, affiliate marketing is advertising another business on your web site. When a visitor to your site clicks on a link that connects them to the affiliated business and makes a purchase, you receive a small percentage of the sale as a commission. The beauty of an affiliate marketing network is that once the site is up and running and your affiliated companies? advertising is posted, you can make money while you sleep. It is an excellent way to earn income.

Do not misunderstand, you will have to promote your site in order to bring visitors in or else no one will be finding your affiliated businesses. As with most internet marketing endeavors, it is a numbers game and the more visitors you have come to your site and the more quality stores you can link them to, the more money you can make with affiliate network marketing. So you want to find ways to get people to your site.

For example, you have a web site and devote 10 pages as kind of a shopping center. You can become affiliated with 50 different online stores that sell a variety of merchandise, but it is recommended to set up each page as it may be viewed as a small shopping center. While the site may offer related merchandise, it is best not to offer competing stores on the same page. The customer may find it difficult to choose and simply leave your mall and shop elsewhere.

Commissions on sales will vary by store. Some may offer two or three percent of the merchandise total and others may offer a flat fee of anywhere from a few cents to hundreds of dollars depending on what is being sold. With an effective marketing plan drawing people in of the virtual street, you can make decent money by renting out spaces in your mall on a commission basis.

You make money by offering a portal to other businesses from commissions on sales and the businesses benefit by the increased sales from your site as well as the exposure they get by your marketing efforts. It is a winning situation for everyone involved. The businesses especially like the idea of you advertising your site, and the fact they can advertise on your site without paying for the space or the time in front of your visitors unless a sale is made.

Traditional advertising requires them to pay without any real way of knowing how much business was generated by their ads and whether the return on their advertising investment is worth the price. Affiliate network marketing shows them exactly where the businesses comes from and how much they spent to have their ad on your site.