If you are new to earning money on the Internet, you may be unfamiliar with this concept. Very simply, you become an affiliate marketer much like you might become an insurance salesperson. The insurance company provides you with all the tools and advertising materials needed to sell their product or products.

Online merchants need online marketers to tout and sell their products and they are willing to pay out a percentage of their profits to see that accomplished. It's a win-win situation. Your job is to simply drive as much traffic to your merchant as you possibly can. Many merchants offer ad copy, pre-written autoresponder letters, banners, and even professional landing pages.

Rather than selling (contrary to our insurance salesperson cited above), as an affiliate marketer you are simply pre-selling. You funnel the prospects to that merchant and the merchant's professional site takes it from there.

Since there are literally hundreds of thousands of products to choose from, how will you make a decision? You will hear differing advice on this. Some encourage you to get involved in what interests you personally. If you are a pet lover, you may want to get on board a program that sells pet products or pet care information. Others will tell you to stick with the hottest, top-selling items. Only you can decide which way to go.

Additionally, you can choose information products only, or you can go with actual physical products. These can range from nutritional products, to makeup, to purses and accessories, to exercise equipment. Some of these offer high commissions!

To become an affiliate, go to sites such as ClickBank.com or LifeTimeCommissions.com, or go to Amazon's homepage and click on the Join Associates link. Prepare to spend some time in your search because it will be easy to get carried away with so many to choose from. Be sure to keep these guidelines in mind as you decide.

* Is their affiliate program free to join? Never pay to help them sell their product!

* What's their reputation like? With the Net at your fingertips, you can research to see if you want to be associated with them.

* Do they have a proven conversion rate? Remember you are doing this to earn money. Why drive traffic to a site that doesn't sell?

Going with an affiliate program is a great way to start out making money working at home. Much of the work has already been done for you. Choose a great product and go for it!