How Do Affiliate Programs Work?

This page shows you how to make money online by joining affiliate programs. The first step is to find online businesses that offer the best affiliate programs and join their programs as a webmaster affiliate (or partner). Then you can start marketing their businesses on the Internet and earn commissions with each customer that you refer to them. Some programs require that the customer actually purchases a product or service, but others will pay you money simply for sending them referrals.

How to Make Money with Affiliate Programs

The following guide describes the basic steps to help new affiliates get started making money online. It includes links to helpful resources for new webmasters.

Join Affiliate Programs

The following pages contain program details and links for joining some of the most profitable affiliate programs.

• Best Affiliate Programs

Choose a Domain Name

When making a website, one of the first steps is usually choosing a domain name for your business. GoDaddy and Dotster are two of the most popular companies offering discount domain name registrations.

Build a Website

If you already know how to build a website, you are ahead of the game. However, if this is your first site, you can easily make your own website with the right software.

Atomic Shops is an easy do-it-yourself business website builder. With their software you can build a website in just minutes – NO programming or design skill is required.

Put Your Site Online

The next step is to choose a web hosting company which will host your website live on the Internet. Here are two popular and inexpensive web hosting companies:

Blue Host was recently awarded Best New Hosting Company by the some of the leading hosting review companies. They have packages that give you a free domain, free setup, 4 Gigs of storage space, 100 Gigs of transfer, 2500 e-mail accounts, a web site builder, free marketing services and more, starting at just $6.95/month !

Start Logic offers free domains, free setup, 2 Gigs of space, 60 Gigs of monthly transfer, unlimited emails, a site builder and more, starting at just $7.50/month.

Make Your Site Sell

The next step is to market your site in order to attract visitors to refer to your partners. Here are some useful online marketing tools:

Site Sell is home to a wealth of products for online entrepreneurs. Their most popular product is "Site Build It!", which is an all-in-one solution for building your site, hosting it on the Internet, and successfully marketing your website online.

The Internet Marketing Center also has valuable tools and information for running a successful Internet business, featuring their guide entitled, "Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet".

Collect Your Money

This step is the most fun. Your affiliate program should allow you to see your traffic and sales statistics online. After all your hard work, it is very rewarding to see the money come in. With some luck, you could be making Mad Money !