How to Earn Money Online Using Affiliate Programs Part 1: What is an Affiliate Program and How Do I Use Them to Make Money Online?

Websites and companies offer affiliate programs, which allow you to promote their site or products and earn a commission. Some pay per sale, per lead, per click or per signup to their website. There are literally thousands upon thousands of these programs that will compliment any topic you could possibly imagine to write about or build a website around.

You will find that there is a vast difference in the amount a sponsor (a company that owns the affiliate program) will offer you for each sale. Some sponsors will pay you 4% commission of all sales made through the link code they give you, while others will pay you $10 for each signup to their website. Choose sponsor programs that will best match your content and peak the interest of your visitors.

Do not always pick the sponsor that pays more, as their product or service may be a harder sale or signup. Sometime promoting the one that pays you the least will end up making you more money because people just like the product or service better.

Just about every major online retailer has an affiliate program that will pay you to sell their products. The upside of this is that you do not need to keep any inventory, ship any products and you get to use their branded name. Promoting online retailers such as Amazon, JC Penney, Wal-Mart, and Kb Toys gives you an upper hand on making a sale because they are already trusted companies in the eyes of your visitors.

In order to apply and be accepted into any affiliate program you must have a blog, website or other way to promote their products such as an Ebook, opt-in mailing list or software program. Some affiliate programs are easier to get accepted into and some are downright strict on who they allow to promote their products.

Remember their names are brands and if they don't think your site is worthy or will enhance their brand they will not accept you. JC Penney is one that really stands out in my mind as being one of the hardest programs to be accepted for.

To find the best affiliate programs to promote, just use your favorite search engine and type in your topic and the phrase "affiliate program". For instance if you are writing an article about gardening, type in +gardening "affiliate programs" and read through some results. Determine what each program has to offer you, then pick at least 5 different ones and apply to each of them. This is so you will have a better chance of being accepted quickly into at least one of them instead of waiting days or weeks to be able to use links to earn you money.

Every affiliate program offers a variety of tools for you to use. Some offer RSS feeds of their products, images and text links to specific products, or just a link to their main site. The more targeted your ad is, the better. Once you get surfers into the sponsor's site any purchase they make will be credited to you, not just the individual product you may have linked to.

Tips to maximize your earnings with affiliate programs:

Do not just place an affiliate program banner on your website. Surfers are becoming immune to banner ads and the use of text ads are the best way to get your visitors to click and buy.

If you want to use a banner ad to give your site some color and visual appeal, add some text just under the banner that contains a call to action. A call to action is a term marketers use which means telling the surfer to do something. Examples of calls to action include "CLICK HERE", "VISIT NOW" and "DOWNLOAD NOW".

For example if you are writing a page or article about a specific toy that is wonderful for infants, take a banner ad from the sponsor program that you chose and put text under the banner that reads something like "CLICK HERE TO READ MORE" or LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS TOY CLICK HERE", replacing "THIS TOY" with the name of the toy.

The best way to get clicks to your sponsor programs is to blend the ads into your site. If your site is blue, try to find a banner that is similar in color and looks like it is part of your site and not just another advertisement.

For text links, try writing an article and linking keywords of it to your sponsor program. For instance if you have a sentence that reads: "One way to quit smoking is" make sure the words "quit smoking" is linked to a quit smoking product.

Write reviews of products and/or services and make sure to add a link at the very bottom so it's the last thing the surfer reads and the most likely option for them is to click it instead of just leaving your site.

To get you started on researching and learning more about sponsor programs I am providing the following websites that have multiple companies and products to promote using just one login.

http://www.cj.com

http://www.clickbank.com

http://www.shareasale.com

http://www.linkshare.com

Watch for my next article: How To Earn Money Online Using Affiliate Programs Part 2: Maximizing Your Earnings With Napster's Affiliate Program