Affiliate Marketing
How does the thought of promoting a company's products and earning a commission for every sale you make sound to you?
In the online world, people who do this are called affiliates and the system of doing it is called affiliate marketing.
How does it work?
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You sign up with an affiliate company
Sign up with one or more of the companies listed below. They will ask for your information such as your name, address, phone number, and where to send payment to. -
Find products to promote
Once you're signed up, look through their inventory (don't worry about scarcity, they have LOTS of products!), and find the products you want to promote. -
Get a special promotion URL
You will get a special promotion URL for each product you want to promote (this is the most important part!).
A regular link to a product might look like this: http://www.product.com/buynow.html while a special promotion URL might look like this: http://www.product.com/buynow.html?affID=264. It's that extra data at the end, the ?affID=264 that signifies that the customer was referred by you and you made the sale for that product. This is how companies keep track of which of their affiliates are making sales. -
Make the sale!
Use the special URL to promote the product on your own website, on a forum, or anywhere else you feel is a good place to promote it, just don't spam! Once a sale is made, your account is credited. When you receive your earnings depends on the rules set by the company you're affiliated with.
Companies
Join these affiliate companies to start making some money!
Clickbank
Clickbank is a company that sells digital products. They have products in many different categories including computers, business, employment, sports, and marketing.
Pay DotCom
Very similar to Clickbank, but Clickbank has been around longer. Many of the product categories are the same as Clickbank's categories.
Commision Junction
Clickbank and Pay DotCom sell products directly, Commission Junction does not. Instead, Commission Junction is a network for companies that want to have an affiliate program.
With Commission Junction, you will be promoting the products of many different companies that run their affiliate program through the Commision Junction network.
