Affiliate marketing is actually using one website to drive traffic to another. This form of online marketing is relatively young and one which is often overlooked by online advertisers. Affiliate marketing is often considered to be overlapping other Internet marketing methods. I don't see this because affiliate marketers usually use regular advertising methods. Regular methods like search engine optimization to get organic traffic, some use paid search engine marketing, e-mail marketing is frequently used, and the use of articles provides a great forum to explain the concepts we develop. "Web 2.0" and the overall theme of social networking is proving to be an excellent form of affiliate marketing. While affiliate marketing generally carries a considerably lower profile online, it still continues to play a significant role in many an e-retailers marketing strategy.

The affiliate model is a "low risk-no risk/high reward" web site monetization option. Consider the following 8 benefits.

1. No products to develop. The products already exist for you to market. You simply pick the best, from the best merchants.

2. You do not have to spend any money to manufacture and store inventory.

3. You do not have to handle or ship a product. The merchant you market for does all that.

4. You never see an order. You will know there was one when, you check how much money you have made.

5. Never worry about getting paid. You send people to your affiliate merchant and get paid when they buy.

6. Customer service is taken care of by the merchant 24/7. Issues that can eat up a huge part of your day simply vanish.

7. You can join free. the merchant is happy having you as an affiliate to help with the marketing. Beware, Some do charge!

8. You can get started part time and for FREE. You can start making money online Free. Talk about "no risk/high rewards"

You pick the best products from the best affiliate merchants. Pick products you have a passion for. This will make it much easier to write about your chosen product when you do your advertising. Here is probably the best advice you will receive, use the product before you advertise it. Two things will happen; you will be sure you have chosen wisely and you will write with more passion when you are telling folks about it. Developing an advertising campaign to market the affiliate product you have chosen will be so much easier. Developing your affiliate campaign advertising. If you have a mailing list, great! You can, however, use many of the proven online advertising methods; SEO, e-mail, articles, free ads.,social networks like Twitter and You Tube, Blogs etc. Use any and all offline ideas you can come up with, to market your product as well. Remember "sales are dollars". Plan correctly and you will be able to set up an affiliate marketing plan FREE.
When you have completed your first affiliate marketing campaign to your satisfaction what should you do next? Do it all over again! You should always be building new and trying to improve your existing campaigns. Suppose you could make a new campaign every week and each campaign sold to numerous people, where do you suppose you would be in a year. This is a lot easier than you think. It can actually be done free. http://www.OneWeekPlan.com can show you how.

Before you just dive into affiliate marketing, do your homework and research the products you like and the methods you will feel comfortable using to advertise your new affiliate product. You can get some great information at http://budurl.com/weekly

Let me personally wish you good luck if you choose this way to earn income online.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=C_Paynter

Having someone else decide your future does not appeal to people who like to decide their own future. These are the type of people who want to steer their own course for the future; being able to take the path any way they want. They want to follow their dreams not someone else's and are ready to take an adventure that will last a lifetime.

This very mindset is the reason why more people are joining one of the most popular online businesses-affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing affords the individual an opportunity to decide their own future while helping others decide theirs. There are no time schedules, no commutes, and no one to tell you about the work that has to be done. The be an independent affiliate marketer you only need a desire to succeed in this type of business and you will achieve all you have dreamed about. Desire and time is all that is needed to follow your dreams.

So other than desire and dreams is there anything else you need to succeed in affiliate marketing? What do you need to do in order to be successful in this industry? First of all you need to be aware that there is a lot of competition, so you need to find your niche and strive to be above the herd.

Through my own experience I have broken it down to 5 essentials tools to achieve the satisfaction that only comes when you achieve your goals. These 5 tools are a must for anyone to have if they are going to stand out from the rest of the crowd.

1. Learn and be trained: For those who have never done anything like this before you will be in unfamiliar territory and it can be scary if you are not properly trained; you could get lost in the herd of affiliate marketers online. You will need to learn the tricks of the trade for every aspect of the marketing game. You will also need a to understand that knowledge will give you an advantage over others in this business.

2. Willingness to invest time and effort even if you don't see results. Many times people give up too soon and the results are just around the corner. It might be several months before you will even see that first results in the form of profit. Patience and perseverance are important. It is those qualities that will stop someone from giving up after investing a lot of there selves into the business.

3. Self-determination. You have set the goal of success in affiliate marketing therefore you must have the ability to keep pushing yourself. Never having to say quit is a quality each and every affiliate marketer should possess, and the ability to motivate oneself into reaching new goals is an ability that would actually take an affiliate marketer to their set goals.

4. Discipline. Teach yourself to work each and every day with all the enthusiasm you can gather, then you are close to achieving what you have set your heart to having in the first place.

5. Optimism. Negative attitudes and hearsay have no place in an affiliate marketer life and in making that life better for himself and for everyone concerned. Never allow outside influences your attitude toward the business; because once you start a business, you must be the head of the company and the leader of all it entails.

The components to success in any online business such as affiliate marketing are varied, but the most important thing one needs to be able to make it big lies in the individual. It is the individual who has the ability to do everything that will ultimately lead to prospects, and the desire, which feeds his drive, is the fuel that will keep the affiliate marketer going.

Affiliate marketing is all about putting one's destiny into one's own hands. The right attitude is the key to being able succeed in an unfamiliar territory where peace of mind will be found.
Nancy has been involved with affiliate marketing for ten years. You can view her websites at http://www.hmewrk4u.com - http://betterbusinessresources.ws

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nancy_Kraska