How to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the storms that has captured the Internet for the past few years. Most major websites incorporate it in some way to their sales strategy. So what is it?

Put simply, the process works like this: you refer someone to their website, they buy something, and you get a commission from the proceeds of the sale. Sounds great! Then why is it that only a small proportion of affiliate marketers make money?

I guess because many people that sign up as affiliates aren't doing it as a serious business venture. Many may just be doing it because they bought something, saw the company's "make money" link and let all their friends and family know to make some extra cash.

Those who do it a business venture know that it requires persistence, a good system and application of that system.

For example, you need
1. A list of potential buyers, website traffic interested in the product, a way to reach hundreds to thousands of people
2. A system of communicating with those people so they are interested in what you have to say
3. A good sales page (provided by the company).
4. A match between interested buyers and the products they are interested in (no point selling baby goods to single men)
5. A company that's in it for the long haul (so that when you build your income stream it's there to stay)
6. A good product so that you don't get charge backs

The good thing is, most companies offering affiliate programs also give the basic training needed to make money in their program. Good companies give great training in how to make money in their program. Some even teach how to build a list and get traffic to your site.