how do affiliate programs work?

I have heard that affiliate programs are a good way to make some extra money, but I am not sure how they work. Could someone please explain the basics to me? Would I just refer people to the companies or web sites that I am affiliated with or would I need to advertise in some way?

There are several options for affiliate programs, probably millions of companies have them..

If you have a website. you add the banners to your site.. for the companies in which you belong to...

I have poker sites.. so I add banners of poker rooms to my sites.. When ppl sign up to those sites, i get a percentage of what the casino gets from them.

other companies will pay for each click, or others still will pay for each impression, just depends on what works for you, and what programs you find.

Thanks. I knew that alot of people I know have affiliations with different sites, but I just wasn't sure how it worked. It sounds like a good way to get cheap advertising even if you did not make much revenue from it.

Well they don't really provide you with advertizing, rather the other way around.. You create a webpage, you create the content, build up the traffic, give your visitors a reason to want to come back, and then you can add affiliate banners to all of your hard work, which is why they pay you

Does anyone here have an affiliate program they would recommend? Perhaps one that is also self explanatory would be great.

How much money can you actually make, from an affiliate program. Anyone care to share?

Originally Posted by rebwhit

Does anyone here have an affiliate program they would recommend? Perhaps one that is also self explanatory would be great.

Amazon.com has a decent affiliate program, go to http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.ht...4C9307C6AE8023

There are also providers that allow you to sign up with different affiliate programs and they administer the program. One such company is Clixgalore.

Is an affiliate program kind of link trading? Or is it something completely different?

you can make alot of money or a little with affiliate programs. the two determining factors are what kind of traffic comes to your site and how much of it there is. I personally know someone who has made in excess of one million dollars from affiliate programs, and i know others who make pennies. If you are curious as to which types of traffic are the most valuable use overtures bid tool. if you cant find it ive posted a link on my site at http://www.nswm.com .

Some do make some cash off of banner farms, where others work hard to make a site that will be usefull for their users, if you work hard on a site, and get some folks to it, and you target your aff programs, there is cash out there.