Are you a college or high school student who only has time for a part-time job but can't find one that pays enough? Hate your boss and/or can't stand your co-workers? Have you been searching long and hard for a route to financial freedom that doesn't involve any bosses except for yourself? Do you have a web site? If you have a web site with some traffic (or even if you don't, on my blog you can learn how to make an online living without one), you can make money by having links to online merchant shops appear on your web site. When a visitor to your site clicks on the link pointing to the web site of the merchant you are affiliated with, and then proceeds to buy something, you get a commission of that sale. Depending on the merchant, this can range anywhere from 5% - 75% of the sale. There are also some merchants who will pay for each click or each lead generated from your site. A lead is a new visitor to the site or shop that inquires about information, prices, or prize/coupon offers.
By having these links on your web site, you are called an affiliate, and the links are called affiliate links. An affiliate program isn't literally a program it's a business arrangement or agreement. Affiliate programs are also commonly known as associate programs, associates programs, partner programs, referral programs and sometimes bounty programs.
For anyone new to Internet marketing and work at home businesses they provide an excellent, high value opportunity in that it's a way to earn money without producing your own product!
To register into an affiliate program is almost always free, and through the affiliate program merchants control panel all you need to start making an income is the linking code, a way to monitor the traffic through your links, and to see what commission you have earned. Visitors who click your link to the merchants' site are called "click-throughs" and the percent of click-through visitors that purchase something on the affiliate merchants' site are called your CR, your Conversion Rate. Likewise, your CTR, or Click-Through Rate, is the percent of visitors to your site that end-up clicking on an affiliate link.
An affiliate program is not a MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) program, since the affiliates only earn from sales, leads or clicks. Some affiliate programs offer what is called a "Two-Tier" program and this is in most cases not considered a MLM program. MLM programs are sometimes called a "Matrix" or "Downline" program and often have an unlimited number of sub-affiliates you can sign up under you. Your downline is everyone who has signed up under you and likewise your "upline" is everyone who signed up above you.
There is also networks operated by third-party companies and individuals where multiple merchants and affiliates use a common software and administrative infrastructure (usually just a simple admin section of a web site) to recruit affiliates and monitor the traffic from their sites. These types of networks are often called affiliate networks. Both the merchants and the potential affiliates need to register with the network. Usually most affiliate networks are free to join because they get a part of the commission but some do charge a fee. Affiliates can find links to the online shops of hundreds of merchants to use on their affiliate driven web sites. Examples of affiliate networks are Commission Junction and ClickBank. You can find links to affiliate networks on my blog (link at end of article).
I am of the opinion that the best affiliate web sites are the ones made from a high demand, low supply niche dedicated to one of your hobbies or interests and something you know a lot about and can provide good value to your visitors. However, if you are not great at writing articles you can find article directories and content sites. Visit my blog to find links to article directories and content.
What will work best for you wont necessarily be the same thing that works for others, you have to experiment and diversify your methods. The most important factor will however depend upon the kind of traffic you have and can generate and the interests of the individuals visiting your site.
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