How to Make Money by Becoming an Affiliate

By Brian Krassenstein

You have a nice site, it has good quality content, and now you`d like to make some money from it.

So, what are the options? We`ll consider here the use of companies who exist to bring advertisers and publishers together.

Perhaps the biggest and best know of all Internet Companies who use an affiliate scheme is Amazon. Affiliates, or Associates as they are termed, use links to Amazon which are tracked, and sales are credited to the Associates account.

Amazon provides a full range of banners, widgets, text links etc to help Associates direct business to the Amazon site. That`s good for the Associate, and generates good business for Amazon.

One of the best know Internet marketing companies in the US is Commission Junction, who connect Advertisers and Publishers together for their mutual benefit. Commissions from the many hundreds of Advertisers on their list can range from around 2% right up to 25%, occasionally even higher, dependant on certain factors.

Banners are available, as well as text links, which incorporate the Publisher`s individual codes so that any sales are correctly credited to the right member. Commission Junction collects the commissions from the Advertisers, then once the minimum payout has been reached, the commission is forwarded to the Publisher.

This is how they promote themselves on their website-

Advertisers

"Drive quality results and extend your reach by partnering with affiliate marketing's most productive network of publishers."

Publishers

"Maximize your revenue opportunities by developing sustainable relationships with top-tier advertisers. Perform and get paid for every sale and lead you generate."

Another company which works in a similar manner is Link Connector, though there are a number of companies offering basically the same service.

Publishers place their site(s) with the Marketing Company. They then look through a list of members (Advertisers) who they think might want to advertise through them. Advertisers will look for Publishers with sites that will fit in with the products or services they are selling. So, for example, if you run a site or blog on Home Brewing Kits, you might look for companies selling beer, wine, kitchen products, books on home brewing, along with sites offering some slightly less immediately obvious product lines.

It`s unlikely that an Advertiser would accept your Home Brewing Kit site if he sold Automotive Parts, or Ladies Apparel.

Some Advertisers will take some time to manually approve a new Publisher, others will automatically approve or reject. Bear in mind though it isn't usually in your interest to add links to sites which have no connection to the theme of your own site. Your visitors aren't necessarily people who`ll want to visit their site if it has nothing in common.

Finally, remember that if your site is geared toward a certain geographical audience, say in the US, it would be pointless signing up with an Advertiser who only sells their product or service in the UK.

Used properly affiliate schemes can be very financially rewarding, but do your homework first.

Brian is a forum Manager at http://www.talkgold.com/forum/f460-.html and consults advertisers at several sites including http://moneymakergroup.com and Hotstockmarket.com