Affiliate Marketing De-Mystified

You have no doubt seen hundreds, if not thousands, of money making opportunities on the Internet. Affiliate marketing can be a great place to try out your online entrepreneurial chops. Unlike most business opportunities, most affiliate programs are free to join and include marketing materials, product banners, and related training.

So what exactly is Affiliate Marketing? It's actually quite simple. In exchange for promoting someone else's product or service, you have the opportunity to earn a percentage of each sale. Commissions may be a few dollars or they may be several hundred dollars, depending on the program.

Finding an affiliate program to join is not difficult

However finding a GOOD one does require a bit more investigation. A great way to find some solid products is to think about your recent online purchases. If you were pleased with the product or service, check their web site for an affiliate or 'partner' program. You'll be pleasantly surprised! Nearly every web site that sells something now has a partner/referral program.

Another tip for choosing a good program is to spend some time on Clickbank.com. You will be able to review the top selling ebook products and also learn which ones have the lowest refund rates. A refund rate of 15% or less indicates a solid product.

Clickbank is simple and easy for beginner affiliates. All of the products offer a money-back guarantee for the buyer and all customer service questions and issues are handled by Clickbank. You don't have to keep track of individual programs or be concerned about getting paid. All of this is handled for you.

Also offering digital products and a free affiliate program is Paydot.com. Earn affiliate commmissions of 5% all the way up to 80%.

This is a newer service than Clickbank but there is already a decent assortment of offerings. Paydot also handles your payment and customer service issues.

With any new online enterprise, expect to go through a learning curve

The quickest way to fast track your profits is to begin your internet marketing education without delay. Spend some time hanging out in some forums, like Warrior Forum and Allan Gardyne's Associate Programs forum. There are hundreds of educational ebooks available or you can purchase affiliate marketing books at Amazon.

Learning how to make money on the net requires that you develop some foundational skills

If you are not good with HTML, never heard of FTP, or have no idea how to set up an autoresponder account, you will either need to learn a lot of information quickly or be prepared to outsource some things at the beginning. Providers for web page design, pay-per-click management and article writing can be found at various outsourcing web sites, such as Elance.

For serious results, look for an affiliate mentoring program, training seminar or one-on-one coaching for affiliate marketers.