Affiliate marketing is a great way for an internet marketer to make an unlimited amount of money. Basically, affiliate marketing allows another website owner to promote another's product and service and the Internet marketer will derive a commission or a referral fee from this if the person they referred actually bought a product or became a member of the particular site. For people who want to start their own online business, affiliate marketing may be the way to go because it enables you to know about the ropes of the trade while making money at the same time.

The affiliate marketer does not need to worry about anything because the money will be credited to his account almost instantly. It is his associate who will take care of everything including the logistics and the other expenses associated with the sale. As you can see, affiliate marketing is certainly one of the best ways to make money online so it is really no wonder that all people who conduct business online are affiliates at one way or another. There are actually already many gurus who became millionaires because of affiliate marketing; or at the very least, for more details visit to www.tube-traffic.com their lives became extremely comfortable because of the profits they derived from this endeavor. In fact, even large websites take advantage of affiliate marketing to make more money.

How did affiliate marketing start?

If you trace the development of affiliate marketing over the internet, it is inevitable that all roads will point to Amazon.com, even today, Amazon is one of the largest affiliate networks there is. When it started its associate program, many marketers were encouraged by its concept. The basic model of affiliate marketing works by letting the site owner register with the affiliate program. He will then need to out different links, for more details visit to www.internet-marketing-word.com banners, and websites in order to encourage his visitors to click on the link. When his visitor buys from his referral link, the website owner (affiliate marketer) will derive a commission from this sale.

On a small scale, affiliate marketing may not seem like such an incredible money making generator, after all, the commission from Amazon is not that high. But ever since this idea is launched, millions have followed. And right now, the commission that an affiliate marketer can get ranges from 4% to 70%, sometimes even more.

Affiliate marketing: Pay for performance

When you look at the Amazon model, you will notice that the company will only pay you a certain commission for the sale you male. However, there are merchants who decided to pay their affiliate partners by the clicks they generate and the leads they provide. This technique is particularly popular when the merchant is selling big ticket items including cars and luxury products.

But as merchants need to build programs that will let them sell as much as possible, a new category has been made in affiliate marketing; this is known as affiliate networks. Usually, third parties run these networks and they provide companies will the necessary outsourced resources for their marketing endeavors.

How newbies can take advantage of affiliate marketing

In the years since affiliate marketing has been introduced, it has become a significant force in e-commerce. Everyday, millions of dollars are being made from affiliate marketing, it is up to the internet marketer whether he will further take advantage of this opportunity or not. Thousands of merchants all over the internet use this technique to improve their business performance and it is now being used as a tool not only to generate sales but to establish particular behaviors as well.

Yet, despite all the hype surrounding affiliate marketing, it is important for the internet marketer to remember that affiliate marketing is really just about connecting the buyers to the sellers. The reward in facilitating these kinds of connections is what the affiliate marketer should be after. So the real key to achieving success in this endeavor is by understanding the consumers and then giving them what they want.