What is Affiliate Marketing? 

Excerpt borrowed from: wikipedia
Affiliate marketing is a web-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's marketing efforts.

Affiliate marketing is also the name of the industry where a number of different types of companies and individuals are performing this form of internet marketing, including affiliate networks, affiliate management companies and in-house affiliate managers, specialized 3rd party vendors, and various types of affiliates/publishers who promote the products and services of their partners.

Affiliate marketing overlaps with other internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, email marketing and in some sense display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques like publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.

Affiliate marketing - using one site to drive traffic to another - is a form of online marketing, which is frequently overlooked by advertisers. While search engines, e-mail and RSS capture much of the attention of online retailers, affiliate marketing carries a much lower profile. Still, affiliates continue to play a significant role in e-retailers' marketing strategies.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work? 

To put it simple.

1. An affiliate (promoter) drives traffic to a merchant by whatever means he/she can.
2. The client reviews the product and if it interest him/her, they make a purchase
3. The merchant pays a percentage (the commission) to the affiliate whom did the marketing and thus brought the client to the site which presented the option of purchase

How Does One Get Into Affiliate Marketing 

and how long would it take to get involved?

You can get into affiliate marketing just as easy as signing up to a program to promote.

Methods of Promotion 

* Word of Mouth
* Writing articles
* Blogging
* Pay-Per-Click advertising
* Magazine advertisements
* Website advertisements
* Flyers & Business Cards
* Creating Review Sites
* NewsFeeds
* Discussion Groups
* Forums (in topic, signature link, etc.)
* On your Vehicle

Step-By-Step 

What to do now.

1st of all things... You need to make the decision on whether or not you are going to be willing to stay focused with marketing whether or not you see profits initially. For some it may take 6 months before they earn a dime, others may make money within 30 minutes of starting. If that hasn't scared you, then continue.

2nd... To BEGIN, first of all sign up for the affiliate programs you see below. I say to signup NOW because it makes transition to actually making profits much smoother, as you won't have to waste time and be distracted later. Also you will have a chance to immediately familiarize yourself with the programs BEFORE attempting to market them.

3rd... I STRONGLY suggest that you join The Wealthy Affiliate University, as it can be very essential to your success. If I could, I would force you to do so. It is a subscription fee of $29.99, but compare that to tuition for a regular university. You can offset that cost with just 1 sale a month, OR by referring about 2 people to the program.

BEST of: Places to LEARN techniques & skills 

LEARNing is what 97% of marketers fail to do, which is why they fail in general. You start off crawling... you must LEARN to walk, then run, then jump, etc.

Wealthy Affiliate University

The 2nd biggest reason I'm so successful in affiliate marketing today... the 1st being, ME. Me as in "I" chose to learn, stay focused, learn, and do.

This program is basically a complete hands-on step-by-step feed me mommy and daddy resource that can guide you to wealth and prosperity in a very minimal time frame. All you have to do is read, listen, and do.

They don't just give you products to promote and tell you to do certain things, they teach you why it works, how it works, how to implement YOU to make it work better, etc. Alongside is a forum where you can actually talk to people, and most importantly get help from over 100,000 members.

Best of: Affiliate Program Networks 

ClickBank

ClickBank is the Internet's largest digital marketplace, where thousands of the web's most popular products are sold every day. Whether you're looking to buy, sell, or promote digital products, ClickBank is for you. ClickBank allows you to sell your own products and/or sell other people's products for up to 75% commissions.

Affiliate Window - (UK targeted)

Another greatly impressive affiliation network that offers literally hundreds to thousands of programs for one to promote. Affiliate Window is based in the UK, and being so, caters mainly to the UK audience, as it's commissions are shown in £GBP.

RegNow

For Publishers:
The software industry's premier registration commerce provider. More tools, more features / functionality, more software specific affiliates, more services...everything you need to get more online software sales.
For Affiliates:
Sell today's hottest software titles available, with commissions up to 75%! The Digital River oneNetwork has all the tools and resources at your disposal to be highly successful, plus with over 25,000 software titles available in both the direct purchase and try-before-you-buy formats, your shoppers will find everything they want and desire.

BEST of: TOOLS 

Tools to help you with research, implementation, etc.

SEO Elite

The Grand Daddy Of All Seo Software! Get A Top 5 Google Ranking In Under 30 Days!

Traffic Travis Seo And Keyword Analysis

SEO Software that will boost your Search Engine Rankings in less than 3 months or your Money Back!

Interviews with some of the BEST Internet Marketers around!!! 

Money and Power

An exclusive interview with the internet marketing pioneer known as Allen Says.

Ross Goldbergs Affiliate Marketing 2.0

Interviews with Russell Brunson, Harris Fellman, Willie Crawford and 10 other top marketers, video tutorials, mind maps and much more!

The M. F. Methods?

The interview Mike Filsaime wishes he could take back. Mike lays down some of the fiercest Internet Marketing Methods going today.

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