What is Affiliate Marketing?
TweetIn my opinion, the best way to make money online is through affiliate marketing. This is when you promote another companies products to earn a commission of the sale. If you are an affiliate then you will have plenty of tools to track your statistics (hops, number of sales, money earned, etc.) Each affiliate program will give you a sales link that is unique so that when you refer people to the merchant's site it will be tracked back to you.
There are a LOT of marketers out there who earn a full-time living off of selling other people's products. If you are new to the Internet marketing game then it might seems far fetched, but think about how many people you know shop online. Do they use eBay? Amazon? NewEgg? Plus there are countless others. That means that there are millions of potential customers for you to reach.
People are becoming more and more comfortable with shopping online as time passes. I personally wouldn't think about buying shoes online, but Zappos.com sold so many that Amazon recently purchased them for almost $1 billion!
With affiliate marketing you can get paid a number of different ways. Sometimes it's a flat fee and other times it's a percentage of the sale. I like percentages of products or services that are recurring. Take Aweber for example. I promote Aweber because they are far and away the best newsletter provider that I have found. They also pay a recurring commission. Since once you have a list with them you aren't going to want to use anyone else, I can get a % of the monthly fee for several years in the future. It works with hosting companies like HostGator too. Normally people don't switch hosts after they sign up, so you can keep earning passive income long after the first sale was made.
You don't even need that much money to get started! Sure they are some small fees for a domain name, hosting, site design, and newsletter provider. However, you don't need a store so you won't be paying monthly rent. You don't need employees (at least to start). You won't have overhead like utilities to worry about. The costs of starting your own business online couldn't be cheaper.
Some people are uncomfortable working only with commissions. These are the people that want a set income each month, working 8-to-5, traveling back-and-forth to their office and working for "the man." While I think you can make a set amount each month if you work hard enough, if you aren't comfortable with how hard you work determining how much you make, or you don't want the ability to go anywhere in the world and still be able to work, then this site isn't for you.
If you want more freedom and the possibility of setting your own income, then keep reading because I am going to do my best to teach you everything you need to know to reach your goals.