We're going to take this nice and easy. This article aims to explain to you exactly what it means to be an affiliate. We'll tell you need to know, what kind of work you’ll have to do, and also how to make it work. It won’t become complicated and will definitely give you a much better idea about what you’re getting yourself into.

“So, what is an affiliate?” I hear you ask! Let me give you two words – partnership and advertising. When you decide to become an affiliate you are entering into a partnership. Now this maybe with a small company or an extremely large one, but the size doesn’t matter because you will always do doing the same thing for them – advertising. That’s it! Really, it is…. The company you are partnering with has products and services to sell, and they allow you to advertise these on your website for them because they believe it will make them more money. I mean, think about it – the more places you advertise something, the wider your audience will be and more products you will sell. Hence, companies will run affiliate programs – and the reason is to make more money. That’s the bottom line.

Now let’s look at this again. You partner with a company, you advertise their product on your website and they make more sales because of you. “Why should I be bothered to do this?” I hear you asking! Well, they pay you to do it. Simple really, you do something for them and they pay you for doing it! That’s business isn’t it? But don’t think of this as a salary type job because it isn’t. The way they pay you for doing what you do varies – but basically its commission based. That seems like an incentive doesn’t it? Of course! The more sales you make for them, the more money they pay you. Your partner may pay you a percentage of the profit on a product they sell, or they may pay a small fixed amount for people that come and sign up for a newsletter they run. There are many different ways a partner will pay you depending on what products they sell and what services they offer.

So, let’s sit back a little and review what have we learnt so far. You will join into a partnership with a company that sells products or services. They allow you to advertise their product/service on your website and for every sale or interest you generate for them, they will pay you. Simple, huh? There is one important point to note here, the company you have chosen to become your affiliate partner may not want you!!! They might deem your content unsuitable, or they may just say no. Don’t take offense, just try again with another affiliate partner or change your content and apply again.

Let’s see what you need to become an affiliate partner. Well, most importantly you need a website. This will be your gateway to convert your own existing and loyal fan base into customers for you new partner. Secondly, you need a partner – make this choice carefully and most importantly make sure your partner is relevant!!! It’s no good running a website about dogs, and advertising for a company that sells furniture. You need to match the content of your website with the product you are trying to sell. This will get you the most referrals and the most profit. Thirdly, you need to try and make your website as popular as possible, and there are many ways of doing this. This last one will probably take the most time and become your hardest task.

There’s just a couple of extra points to mention. The company you partner with will generally give you several things. They’ll provide the adverts and content for your site. You don’t have to make these up yourselves! Just see what they’ve given you and decide where you want to place it. They’ll also give you a statistical analysis so you can see how many customers you have referred and how much money you are making. If you’re adventurous, they may even be able to provide you with a generic storefront that you personalize. This will direct traffic to their site, and they will handle the sales, shipping and customer satisfaction, but it appears that you have your own store without all the work. The partners are usually more than willing to help you out here.

That’s it! Now you know what an affiliate is. It’s someone who advertises on their own website, a product or service for someone else. They get paid to do it. The better they become at it the more money they make. They might have a choice on how they get paid. It is a continuing partnership and one that can be very profitable for you and your partner.