Making Money with Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs have been my most successful method of making money on the Internet. I love the concept, the simplicity and the potential to earn great money online.

Personally, I have been an affiliate publisher since 1997 and have managed a few programs for other companies. I could also write about some of the great months where great commissions were made on this program or that, but I’m not going to do that here.

For some, making money with affiliate programs could be a tougher nut to crack, but the possibilities of making money online here are unlimited.

As opposed to earning income with ads on your website, with affiliate programs one can earn flat rate or percentage based commissions. As well, there are programs that pay residual commissions which can be very appealing for ones that want to see something come in every month.

How about a simple example of an affiliate relationship?

Think of an affiliate program as a partnership, a relationship or a win-win situation for yourself and the company you are promoting.

Say your friend was selling his house privetly and one day he/she approaches you and says “[your name here ...], I will pay you $5.00 for every valid lead you bring to me that is intersted in buying my house! On top of that, I will pay you a percentage of the sale if the home is sold from a lead that you brought in!”

Sound enticing! Not only do you make money for sending people you know over to their house, you will also get paid if a sale is made from one of your referrals!

If you know a lot people interested in buying a house, this relationship could prove to be profitable for you.

Much is the same for affiliate programs on the Internet.

From your website you drive traffic to the company selling products online. If one of your website visitors that you sent over to your affiliate partner makes a purchase … you guessed it, you make a commission.

The Benefits …

In this online income method, you do not have to stock any inventory or wonder what products to sell online.

You do not have to invest in an e-commerce website to process credit cards, deal with returns, fraud and such.

Best part, you don’t even have to talk to the customer at all (you know how they can be!), because all you are doing is driving traffic to that affiliate website.

There are many more benefits to earning income with affiliate programs which we’ll get to later, but be forewarned, there are challenges involved as well. This is a tightly monitored industry with many big named players already cornering certain markets and strategies. That’s not so say there is no room for additional competition, because anything is possible on the Internet.