Every month or quarter, or once you reach a certain dollar amount, for example, $100, you will receive a payment from the affiliate network, either in the form of a check, or a direct deposit to a specified bank account.

 (HINT: set up a separate bank account, email address, and PayPal account for any online business you want to start. Give these new details to the affiliate program).

You might have to mail or fax in a W-9 tax form if you live in the US, and then you will be able to be paid, and start registering for programs which in the first instance are most similar to the content you already have at your site.

Or, if you are just getting started, research the affiliates and see which ones are offering either high commissions on sales, or simply pay in exchange for lead generation. Then create content based around those programs in order to drive traffic, and make sure to SEO these pages for high organic search results.

We will be posting articles on affiliate programs and how to make the most of this marketing opportunity, but for now it is simply  important to highlight the fact that is a fast, easy way to get started marketing and selling online, with little to no risk other than some time and effort.

The financial potential can be huge, however, particularly for downloadable products. In most cases you don’t need to worry so much about chargebacks, and in the case of either tangible or digital goods, the company will handle the customer service, leaving you free to come up with good marketing strategies, and an automated stream of revenue from your site which is available 24/7.

As we said, there will be more information on affiliates here and at the useful online marketing site Insider Secrets Corp. at http://insidersecretscorp.com

For the moment it is enough to know how affiliate programs work, so you can consider if they might be right for you, and so you can incorporate suggested keywords from your chosen affiliate programs into your SEO.

The basic set up, from the affiliate’s side, goes as follows: You (the Affiliate) find a company or product that you would like to promote.

 You join the “affiliate program” of the company and receive the links and marketing assistance you need to drive traffic to the site and track your leads and sales.

These tools most often include a special URL link, which will let the company know that the customer has come from you. You will get credit when people visit the companies’ websites, or when they buy something or fill out a form.

Affiliate networks like Commission Junction show you the company’s details, terms of the agreement and percentage of commission, or per lead payment, and any incentives by the company to get you to an even higher level of commission.

In addition, they will suggest useful keywords, and give you a list of keywords you should not bid on if you were going to try to drive traffic to the site using Pay Per Click (PPC) in order to boost sales and therefore your commissions.

In most cases, the only real rule is to not bid on their trademark, but that would be true anyway, as Google and other search engines now make sure that this is not permitted, since it is copyright infringement.

The affiliate managers will also give you ‘creative’, pictures, links, ad copy, that they think will be effective. In most cases, there is a record of past performance right next to the ad, so if given a choice, don’t go for the one that looks pretty, go for the one that is the highest in terms of conversions from click through to actual sale.

An online affiliate sells products or services online on behalf of another company, in exchange for a share of the revenue.

Large companies like to have many affiliates in order to drive traffic without having to worry about paying vast salaries to salespeople who might or might not deliver the goods.

The compensation type varies from company to company, but generally speaking, affiliate income is based on either sales, or leads.

If you sell the product, you get a commission. If you generate a lead, you will get a ‘finder’s fee’.  If not, no harm done for the company. They are not paying a salary to someone who is failing. In most cases, only about 10% of affiliates will ever bring in any substantial cash for them, but those super affiliates can be worth their weight in gold.

When you become an affiliate with a specific company, or affiliate program, you are awarded for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer that you provide to the company.

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular forms of business on the web, and an effective way to promote businesses and products right away, without having to have a product of your own. 

You can be an affiliate for tangible products,(things that will come in the mail) such as those sold at Commission Junction, Double Click/Performics (now part of the Google Affiliate network) or PayDotCom, or, you might sell digital only downloadable products through ClickBank or PayDotCom.