Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a popular way of making some extra money through the use of the Internet. Although it is hard work at the beginning establishing a regular income, the big advantage with affiliate marketing is that once you have built up a network of affiliates your income will usually become bigger and more regular without you having to do proportionately more work.

When you become an affiliate for an existing business on the web you basically use your own methods in order to attract customers to the business. Affiliates are each provided with a unique tracking code so that the business will be aware when a visit to its site has come via your link as opposed to anybody else's. When that visitor makes a purchase you receive a percentage of the sale price, usually in perpetuity.

The challenge for affiliates is to find outlets for their unique affiliate code. It can be inserted into websites, sometimes too into blogs although check first with the provider of the blogging platform that affiliate links are allowed. Some online forums will also permit links with affiliate code, although usually within the context of a helpful written contribution - it is seldom acceptable to use somebody else's platform to post mindless spam.

All kinds of businesses offer affiliate services, one just has to apply for acceptance. Always read the small print as the terms and conditions can and frequently do vary. One good business for affiliates is the betting industry. Sportsbooks will give affiliates a percentage of all profits they make from new customers brought to them by that affiliate. With most sportsbooks that means of course that would be dependent upon the customer losing money, although with the betting exchanges it would simply be a proportion of the commission received - win or lose.

Many successful affiliates can reach a point where they are making a living from their work, although it would take many months and probably years to reach this point. Many more use it for extra money to top up their main income. Either way it is worthwhile, especially once the hard work is done and the income begins to flow.