Affiliate marketing is all about getting paid for selling products you don't own and not going to jail for it. Someone else goes through all of the trouble to develop software programs, service, or digital content products. They'll do all the work then you collect the money!

Affiliate marketing is a revenue sharing arrangement between the product developer, known as the affiliate merchant, and the affiliate marketer who is anyone that's willing to promote the sale of product by advertising the product using any type of legal means available.

The relationship will allow the affiliate merchant to grow their revenue by paying only for the advertising that results in a sale. The affiliate marketer will profit by making a percentage on a sale that he does not have to manage after the sale.

Getting paid Getting paid all depends upon how the affiliate program is set up. Some merchants will run their own affiliate program. They'll have special types of software that assigns each affiliate marketer a special link that's used in promoting the product. The software will track sales of every marketer and the merchant will pay the commission on a periodic basis using either PayPal or another method of payment.

Selecting products or services Your income is directly tied to how well your selected product or service sells, and the size of the commission you earn, which makes it very important that you choose carefully when it comes to choosing the affiliate merchant you'll be partnering with.

Choose programs that you aren't embarrassed to promote and programs that you'll feel comfortable recommending to your family and friends if they were to ask you about it.

You'll do much better if you promote products that you fully understand and are already familiar with. This way, you'll be able to write better ads without having to strain yourself coming up with the right things to say.

You should only promote products and services for companies who have gone through the trouble to provide you with training programs and sales aids such as banners and other marketing materials that you can either use directly or model the one you own after.

Be on the lookout for programs with commission rates no less than 50%. You should give preference to programs that pay commission on multiple levels, which means you'll also have to earn commissions on sales made by people who buy the products through your link then go on and become affiliates themselves later on.