GENERATE INCOME FROM YOUR WEB SITE
>>> AFFILIATE PROGRAMS EXPLAINED

What is an affiliate program? An affiliate or sometimes also referred to as an 'associate' program is a program that allows you the opportunity to market another company's products or services for a commission fee per item sold. Many major online retailers such as Macy's, Amazon, Wal-Mart, Fortunoff, eBay, Circuit City,1-800-Flowers, MichelKeck.com and literally thousand of others major retailers offer free to join affiliate or associate programs that will pay you different percentages for the orders that are generated on their web site that have come to them from your affiliate link. In order to join an affiliate program you must have a web site. Additionally you will want to make sure that you are only joining/promoting the online affiliate programs that fit with the content of your own web site. For example if you run a clothing web site you may do well joining affiliate programs such as; Fashion Bug, Macy's, Bluefly, or Eluxury. You will do best joining the affiliate programs of web sites that have a similar content. For example a clothing site would probably not do well joining and promoting Ace Hardwares (yes they have one too!!) affiliate program. If your web site is health related you would want to join affiliate programs such as Eating for Energy, that offer products for those interested in living a healthier lifestyle.

Each affiliate programs sets the price of how much they pay their affiliates. Commissions per sale can range as low as 2% to as high as 50% or more per sale. The amount of the commission paid also relates directly to the retail price of the products/services that are being sold. MichelKeck.com is an excellent example of a high-end affiliate program that pays commissions as high as $1,000+ per sale. Some affiliate programs also offer multi-tier commission structures too. A multi-tier affiliate program means if someone you referred to their web site also becomes an affiiate and makes sales you can earn commissions on their sales too. MichelKeck.com Fine Art Affiliate Program, and Eating for Energy are two examples of affiliate programs that offer a 2-tier commission structure.

EASIEST WAY TO FIND & JOIN AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

Most major affiliate & associate programs are partnered with either the company LinkShare.com or Commission Junction for the maintenance of their affiliate programs. You can join both Commission Junction and LinkShare.com for free. Their sign up processes from start to finish takes only a couple of minutes, and once you join you will have immediate access to an enormous directory of online affiliate programs that are all free to join. From your LinkShare.com account you will be able to access all of the information about all of the programs you join including all of the text and banner links for you to use on your web site for each program you join. There is no faster or easier way to find the affiliate programs that fit your web site's niche.

Another free way to generate income from your web site is by joining Google's Adsense program. You earn money for simply showing relevant ads on your web site. The google adsense program is a no-cost way for you to start earning extra income from your web site instantly.