Over the past few years, I have made a few extra bucks with affiliate products. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to devote to making it a full time job. It is, however, a lucrative business that you can do from the comfort of your home computer.



To get started as an affiliate marketer, you will need to sign-up with a company that has affiliate products that you can promote. These companies are totally free to join. The most popular company with a large list of affiliate products is ClickBank, but Shareasale and Commission Junction are also legitimate companies.

The second step is to decide which products you want to promote. You may choose products based on topics you have specific knowledge on, or you may choose products based on popularity. Each of the websites lists the popularity of the affiliate products as well as their conversion rates. The conversion rates let you know how many individuals end up purchasing the product, which results in you getting a commission check.



Finally, you need to work on promoting the affiliate code that you are given for the products you chose. This can be done many different ways. You can place the link as your signature in emails and forum posts, you can create a splash page to promote the product in traffic exchanges, or you can create banners for the product to be placed on websites that receive a large amount of traffic.



If you want to maximize your earnings, you will have to keep track of your promotions to see which ones are working and which ones aren’t. You can then tweak your campaigns to get them to earn you more money. Remember that in order to make money promoting affiliate products, you must be willing to work hard at it and put in the time. There is no magic formula for earning money without time and hard work.