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What is affiliate marketing? It is the promotion of products by third parties (The Affiliates) in exchange for a commission / cut of the sale. It is a method that thousands of small and large companies are increasingly using to generate traffic and promotion of their product, and the statistics certainly show that it is a very effective method of marketing. In fact affiliate marketing is truly the ultimate business model that everyone is turning to in today's society. So how does affiliate marketing really work?

It all starts out with a company that has a product to sell and has a thirsty market for the product. It then designs an affiliate program for advertisers or affiliates to promote the product and sets up a compromising commission for the affiliates. The affiliates then sign up for the affiliate program and begin advertising the companies product to receive these desirable commissions that the companies have set. This is a quick overall of how affiliate marketing works.

Researchers have found that by linking to other web sites, and paying these other web sites a commission for every sale that they refer, their sales levels will soar. So if you are interested in becoming a successful affiliate marketer, then there are a couple of simple steps that you can take to get you started.

First of all, you should concentrate on finding the product you want to affiliate to. This is not as easy as it sounds at first, as there are literally thousands of affiliate programs out there on the web. You should therefore think about what you personally would enjoy selling. It is very important for you to find a profitable niche when searching for products to promote. Searching on Google, Yahoo, and Msn are great ways to start your search, looking up things such as "affiliate marketing " for instance should bring you back good results. Most people agree that if you are going to have success in affiliate marketing, then you should set up a content rich web site on a topic that already interests you.

This will inspire you to put more content and relevant material on the web site and as a result, your customers will find that your site interests them more - and they will return. Also your site will get picked up fast by the search engines because of your relevant content. You can also consider setting up affiliate marketing sites on web topics that you have special knowledge in such as your profession, or a special skill that you have and therefore on which you have more than just a basic knowledge. You should combine these interests with good affiliate merchant opportunities. Once you decide on your niche, research for some quality affiliate programs that fit this niche.

There are so many of these programs out there, that it won't be hard at all to find products for your niche. If you find that the products that the affiliate companies are marketing are slightly different than what you have chosen, you can always adjust your marketing strategy to suit the affiliate site more closely. Read their affiliate marketing contract, make sure that it suits you and sounds like something you can profit from. Be sure to check the affiliate forums and to do some searches to check that it has no complaints that have been filed against the program. Then sign up.

A good affiliate company will provide an affiliate link, marketing materials, and a step-by-step guide to getting you started with promoting their product. The product you choose to affiliate with will be your primary product. You should now develop a web site that will promote this product while at the same time attract targeted traffic. Remember that you do not have to sell the product completely, but just get the customers to click on the link to the merchants sales page. This is called "pre-selling" and is one of the most effective affiliate marketing techniques. If the merchants sales page is any good, then you should bring in a lot of sales to their site. Good luck with your affiliate marketing experience and remember, success in affiliate marketing takes work as well as time.