Affiliate Marketing is probably the world's easiest way to make money online and, the best part is, it's not some silly "get rich quick" scheme. Basically, it's a commission based sales platform.

In it's most common form these days, here's how it works:

You sign up with a company, either directly through their website or through an affiliate network (more on that later) and they give you a code. Then, you place an ad on your website and/or blog with that code embedded and when someone clicks through and buys something, you get paid.

Again, that's the most common formula for compensation. There are other formulas which I'll address below. All in all, it really is that simple. So why isn't everyone doing it? Because in order to make a living from affiliate sales, you need traffic coming to your blog or website. *That's* the difficult part.

Just about every major e-tailer has an affiliate program these days. Usually you can find a link to their program somewhere on the home page. In fact, if you scroll to the bottom of this page you'll see that hubpages has an affiliate program of its own.

But, there's another way to start affiliate marketing. You can join an affiliate network. Affiliate networks give their associates access to a stable of merchants and offer constant support. They regulary send their affiliates new ads, new products and new vendors to promote. They also provide tracking and send payment. So there's no need to keep track of dozens of companies yourself. All your tracking and compensation information is available in one place.

Of course, not all companies are connected to an affiliate network. So sometimes it's necessary to sign up with a company directly.

As I mentioned above, these days, the most common form of affiliate compensation is revenue sharing or "pay per sale." That's why it's a no-brainer for companies to use affiliate marketers. They only pay out when someone actually buys something.

But there are other methods....

Cost Per Action: An advertiser will pay an affiliate for other actions other than purchases. For example, completed surveys, supplied email addresses or voting in a poll.

Cost Per Click: Advertisers pay affiliates when a potential customer clicks on an ad, taking then to the vendor's site, even if they don't make a purchase. NOT VERY COMMON ANY MORE.

Cost Per Mille: Advertisers pay affiliates for every thousand views. VERY UNCOMMON.