Make Money Online with Affiliate Marketing

Make Money Online

It must have been around 1998 or so that I heard about online affiliate marketing for the first time.  It immediately made sense to me.  If I had only acted seriously on it back then ...

My monthly book club book had just arrived when I got sick and had to stay home for a few days.  The book was about Internet Explorer 4, the most advanced Web browser at the time.  It included a free copy of FrontPage and when I recovered I started to experiment with it.

Soon after that, I heard about the Long Island Web Developers Guild and immediately joined.  It was through this organization I was introduced to affiliate marketing programs such as

Commission Junction
Linkshare and
Amazon

The fact that these organizations are still around today is a strong testimony to the durability of the concept.

The two really neat things about affiliate marketing are

1.  Invest some time up front, then step back and watch your Web site earn money for you 24 hours a day.
2.  Some programs work worldwide.  You're not limited to your own local market.

Some people have one thing they are really passionate about.  It makes a lot of sense to try to make it your job.  That's terrific if a zillion other people are also interested in it.  If your passion is Mongolian sheep herder staffs making a living from them is probably going to be a little tough.

Some really smart guy once told me it's better to go about it the other way around.  First, find out what people are interested in, what they are willing to pay money for and then go out and sell it to them. With affiliate marketing you can and without stocking or shipping a single widget.  Does that make sense?  It does to me.