by Josh Greenberger

Created on: December 14, 2008

Introduction To Affiliate Program Income

Starting a business is usually an expensive proposition. But with an online "affiliate program" you can at least eliminate most of the setup expenses.

Affiliate programs are online networks where merchants - such as Ebay, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kmart, and thousands of equally popular and many lesser known companies - sign up to allow website owners (publishers) to sell their goods and services on a commission basis. Signing up with a legitimate affiliate network is free and you never have to pay them a dime - they pay you, if you sell.

With an affiliate program you never have to stock inventory or fill orders; the merchant does all that. All you have to do is attract customers. This may be the most difficult part of any business, but at least you eliminate many of the other headaches associated with running a business.

The commissions you'll receive in an affiliate program will probably be less than the markup you'd make in your own business, but that's the price you pay for reduced headaches. (Tylenol is even better; but no one makes money taking Tylenol.)

You will need a website to sell for an affiliate program. And you will probably have to modify it often. So, unless you're already doing very well with it, it's probably not a good idea to hire an expensive consultant to set up and regularly modify your website. You can do it yourself with some user friendly software (like Frontpage) or a website hosting account that comes with a website builder.

While some affiliate networks will accept your signup instantly, others will scrutinize your website to see whether it meets whatever their requirements are: for example, how much traffic (visitors) it gets, the demographics of the traffic, what industry you cater to, and so on. Once you sign up, you (often, but not always) have to apply to each merchant individually.

A few affiliate programs that come to mind are cj.com (Commission Junction), performics.com and clickbank.com. You can find many more by googling "top affiliate programs."

Some merchants, like Amazon.com (affiliate-program.amazon.com), run their own affiliate programs, so you don't have to join a network.

Besides commissions and fixed amounts per sale, some merchants will pay for other "actions," such as "leads" and "clicks." A lead is when a visitor signs up for something (usually free) or request some info. A click is when a visitor simply clicks on the merchant's banner or link that you've put up on your website.

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