Affiliate marketing is a method of promoting a web business, products or services whereby the affiliate (person selling on behalf of the company) is paid a certain percentage or amount for every sale made, lead generated, subscriber or visitor obtained. You can promote an individual’s product or join an affiliate network where there is a pool of products to promote. I generally do both.

As an Affiliate Marketing entrepreneur control of how fast and big your business expands. The more you sell, the more money you make. Keep in mind however, that succeeding in affiliate marketing business requires work.  Affiliate marketing is not just a one-day task. It an on going assignment where you have to try different things out like different advertising techniques, different ways of adding affiliate banners and text links to your site, etc. 

Where to find products to promote

The easiest way to find products to promote is through signing up with some online advertising or affiliate networks. These are sites where you can find tons of various products to promote. My best recommended affiliate networks include,

1.      Clickback: Comission paid here go up to 75%, which means for every sale you make – you make generate money that the owner of the product.

2.      CJ: very good as it also pay in Rands

3.      Traffic Synergy (is one of the best in South Africa as well). Doesn’t have a large database when compared to the others but is well targeted if your focus is on the South African Market. They do focus on the international market with other branches in the USA and UK.

You can also sign up with my best two companies to promote their products/advertisers’ products i.e. Google and Amazon. I make tons of money with these two. I strongly recommend them – ‘nuf said.

There are a number of other ones that are as lucrative but I only recommend what I know and have used – have even received payments for my efforts. You may join a number of affiliate programs just to see which ones perform better than the ones you are already promoting. Just make sure you don’t join too many to keep track of. I generally keep less than 5 at a time.

How to get paid through affiliate marketing

There are various ways to get paid but the most common one is through your free Paypal account. Note however that in some countries Paypal is not available and in some like South Africa and other SADC countries, you can only send money through your paypal account and cannot not receive it (you can pay others through the account but they cannot pay you).

So when signing up on these affiliate networks, you have to choose the Pay-by-check” option. Rest assured, with the networks I’ve recommended – you will receive your check.

You can also use it to grow your own online business

You can choose not to promote other people’s products but create your own and get others to promote it on your behalf. This is so easy. You can just add the product on Amazon, Clickbank or sign up for Google Adwords and you will have hundreds or affiliates lining up to market it for you. The affiliate network will handle all the logistics while you enjoy the cash and offer after sale support to your customers of course. It is possible to buy software and run your own affiliate program from your site but I do not advise this for Internet Marketing beginners.