Affiliate marketing can be a very effective way to earn income online without carrying inventory yourself, but you need to stay on top of the latest developments in the industry to successfully capitalize on your affiliate relationships. The text links and banners that were once the mainstay of affiliate marketers are giving way to more creative ways to generate revenue. Affiliates are making use of blogs, social networks, email lists, pay per clicks, search engine campaigns every kind of online marketing channel available to get their message out.
Joining the Game
If youre just coming into affiliate marketing, theres no reason to feel overwhelmed by all the changes. There are actually many simple options for getting started. The most prevalent way may be to join a revenue sharing program, like Amazon, where you refer a sale for a percent of the commission. Or, if you have your own web site, you might use a program like Google AdSense to run pay per click ads for products or services that correspond to (but dont compete with) your own offerings. Every time one of your customers click on an ad, you receive a flat fee. Pay per lead is another popular model: you...