First, let's talk a little bit about what affiliate marketing is so that you have a true understanding of how it works; especially when you begin to first learn affiliate marketing. As you well know, there are countless products for sale online. Everyone from Wal-Mart to Amazon to individuals who share their knowledge by way of ebooks and videos have products for sale.

Most often the companies that have these products for sale also have an affiliate program (also called a partner program). And it's this affiliate or partner program that will earn you income as an affiliate marketer.

Not all affiliate programs are created equal and just as each individual company has its own individual products, they also each have their own individual affiliate programs.

Some companies will pay you a 5% commission on the amount of products you sell while others will pay you up to 75% commissions.

It's important to know that you actually do not physically have these products in your possession, nor do you have to be responsible for shipping the items, dealing with customer inquiries or even dealing with returns.

As an affiliate marketer, you are given a special link from each individual company you want to represent which specifically identifies you as the affiliate.

When someone visits your website or blog, clicks on the affiliate link you've provided and subsequently makes a purchase, you, as the affiliate earn the percentage of income that the company originally laid out to you when you signed up for that program.

While some companies manage their own individual affiliate programs, other companies chose to have their affiliate program managed for them and use what's called an "affiliate network".

An affiliate network is a large collection of companies that all offer their own affiliate programs. For instance, Commission Junction, one of the largest affiliate networks, has hundreds of different companies affiliate programs that they manage; companies such as Kodak, The Wall Street Journal and Discover Card all have their affiliate programs managed by Commission Junction (as of this writing).

However, even though Commission Junction manages their affiliate program, each individual company will offer different payouts and different incentives for their affiliates.

Another popular affiliate network is Clickbank. Clickbank.com is an affiliate network that manages digital products such as ebooks and videos. Since Clickbank deals with digital products, that is, products that can be delivered instantly over the Internet, you will often find commissions being paid out as high as 75% and quite often at 50%. The reason for this is that a digital product doesn't require that an inventory be stored, it doesn't have to ship that item and is all around easier to deliver to the end customer.

What makes affiliate networks so appealing to affiliate marketers is that since there are many different affiliate opportunities housed under one roof, you don't have to wait for individual payments from each individual product. Instead, all of your commissions are handled by a third party and are lumped all together to from one large check instead of various small checks.