Have you heard about great ways to make money online without having to do surveys? Then you are probably asking yourself what is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn some extra money, particularly if you have a website of your own. You can make money without actually doing anything.

Well, that's not completely true; you do have to DO something, at the beginning. But once you have set it all up, then you can just sit back and see the money roll in.

If you want to be an affiliate, you basically place an ad for someone else's business or product on your website. There doesn't have to be any direct selling or promotion. All you have to do is put the advertisement up there.

There can be more advertising or promotion if you want to do email listings or things like that, but for today we are just going to talk the basics of 'what is affiliate marketing.' We are going to talk about who is involved, and most importantly, how you make the money!

So as I said before, if you own a website you can be an affiliate, someone who passively promotes another person's product or service, that other person is called the merchant.

The merchant has benefits as well, and this is why affiliate marketing works so well. The merchant doesn't necessarily have to do much selling of their own. They don't have to buy much ad space or promotion space.

They only have to pay the affiliate when the relationship is working, they only pay when people see the ad or buy the product. This means the merchant knows they are only paying for the results. And that's good business!

Most people ask the question, what is affiliate marketing, with the desire to know mostly, how do you get paid by affiliate marketing?

Well, there are three main ways to earn money through affiliate marketing.

The first is Pay-per click (PPC). Every time a visitor leaves your website by 'clicking' on the link or banner that advertises the merchant product or service, a certain amount of money is paid to the affiliate.

This amount can be small or large, that really depends on the product, the relationship and the commission agreement.

Pay per sale is the second way. Every time a visitor buys a product as a result of the advertising on your website a percentage or commission is given to you, the affiliate. This is generally much more than the PPC commission.

Finally, is the pay per lead way of making money. Overtime if a visitor registers with the merchants website, or enters a competition and gives their details as a result of the advertisement on your site then you get a previously agreed upon amount of money.

It's really that simple! The hard part when you are learning what is affiliate marketing is deciding which merchants to go with.

You also must be sure to choose wisely and protect yourself. Always agree on prices ahead of time and always do lots of research on the merchant before affiliation is settled.

So, what is Affiliate marketing? It's a great way to make money online. But it takes lots of research and homework to get there. So, take your time and always ensure that the business relationships you create are mutually beneficial!