When you first start looking at ways to make money online you will find lots of different business opportunities, courses and eBooks available on how to make money using various methods online.
One of the first things you need to understand is the various ways income can be earned online.
One of the most popular online income sources is affiliate marketing.
What is Affiliate Marketing? Affiliate marketing is promoting other peoples products and services, once you sign up as an affiliate to promote products and services you will be assigned an affiliate link.
You then promote that link and when people buy the products or services you are promoting you are paid a commission.
By using affiliates to promote for them, companies can either reduce the amount of traditional advertising they do, or cease it altogether.
While traditional advertising costs regardless of the effectiveness of a campaign, affiliates are only paid on results.
With the growing popularity of the internet and affiliate marketing, producers of both physical and digital products are turning to market their products.
The range of products and services with affiliate programs is massive and growing all the time.
It includes digital products such as eBooks, online training courses, web hosting, design services, membership sites and much more.
Physical products include electrical products, books, clothing, gifts and many more items you can buy online.
From individuals marketing their own eBook to large corporations like Sony, Apple iTunes and Amazon many people and companies are using affiliate marketers to promote their products.
Some affiliate programs also offer ongoing commissions for ongoing payments such as web hosting or monthly membership site fees.
Others will make One Time Offers or up-sells to customers and some also pay affiliates a commission for additional purchases made by customers.
What is CPA- Cost Per Action? Another form of affiliate earnings is Cost Per Action or CPA.
CPA is where you get paid on a certain action performed by somebody you referred.
It may be as simple as them entering their postcode in a web-form.
More often they will be required to supply their email address or provide their credit card details for a free trial.
The more information people provide the more the referring affiliate gets paid for the action.
Payments vary depending on individual companies and offers.
With CPA you only get paid for the required action.
If a purchase results later on, you will not be paid a commission.
The Advantages of Affiliate Marketing There are many advantages to affiliate marketing.
You do not need to carry stock, which saves you the expense involved with buying stock and keeping it until it sells, the worry of whether the stock you have chosen will sell, the costs or space required to warehouse stock and the time involved in packing and dispatching stock and dealing with returns.
Payments are handled by the company or affiliate network you are selling for.
All you need to do is get people to buy using your link and you get paid.
Sounds simple doesn't it? Effective marketing is the key to building a successful affiliate business.