What is Affiliate Marketing?

The affiliate marketing business model is a brilliant marketing concept that was originally developed in 1998 by Amazon.com which rewarded independent website owners for driving traffic to their site which resulted in sales.

Website owners place links (that identify the website owner as the referrer) on their sites that point to products/books on amazon. (the products are of course relevant to the content on the website) When a "presold" visitor clicks through to amazon and purchases a product, the website owner earns a commission.

It wasn't long before this performance based reward system i.e. Affiliate Marketing took the internet by storm.

Today, thousands of companies both large and small have affiliate programs. This form of marketing has since enabled people all over the world to earn money online in the comfort of their own homes.

With a commission based reward system their are:

No products to ship
No customers to deal with
No inventory hassles
No cap on your potential income
And the list goes on...

So, what is the best way to get started with affiliate marketing?

Find a niche product that solves a problem for a starving crowd. - A hot niche where there is already tons of traffic. For example, (How to get flat abs) or (how to lose belly fat) or (Getting rid of acne) to name a few.

Keyword Research - Find low competition keywords - Keywords that people are using to find answers to thier problems.

Then, throw yourself in front of this crown by building a website or blog using the keywords people use to find the answers to their problems.

Your answer to their problem is obviously going to be the affiliate product (usually a digitally downloadable ebook) you are promoting.

I recommend you start your affiliate marketing business marketing products listed in clickbank. Clickbank will give you tons of ideas on niche products that you can promote, the commissions are very high (50% to 75%) they are a very reputable company and they payout every two weeks.