Affiliate Marketing In A Nutshell

As you pursue research in an effort to understand search engine optimization and Internet business more fully, one thing you may be left wondering is whether it is actually possible to make money online, or whether (as many people assume!) every "make money online" approach is nothing more than a scam.

The simple answer is as follows:

There are certainly "make money online" approaches that are nothing more than scams, but there are also plenty of legitimate - and lucrative - ways to make money online!

And outside of setting up a website that is specifically designed to promote your business, the best way to set up a website - and make it generate money for you - is to become an affiliate.

Affiliate marketing entails using your website to promote products from external websites - from whom you receive a percentage of the sale, each time a sale is made as a result of your website.

The best way to completely understand affiliate marketing is to look at an example:

One of the most popular affiliate websites is Amazon (its popularity as an affiliate site being due largely to the fact that it is such a popular site in general!). 

When you set up an affiliate account with Amazon, you can use your website to detail certain products, and as you detail a particular product, you can also link to it (using an affiliate link) directly. 

If anyone who visits your site clicks on this link and subsequently buys anything at all on Amazon, you will make 4% of whatever the person pays. This affiliate payout quickly escalates to 6%, and you will generate this money at all times of the day - regardless of whether you are at your computer or not - just by virtue of providing the link and sending people to Amazon through your site!

While Amazon is on the low end of payout percentage, it is also a website people recognize - and probably already have a buyer account on - which will make it likelier that they will pull the trigger on a purchase. 

However, there are websites on which you can make as much as 10% or 15% of each sale you create - and all you have to do is link to their products on your page!

Of course, there is more to making money as an affiliate than simply setting up a page and waiting for people to click on your links. After all, you need to get people to your page in the first place - which will require a thorough understanding of search engine optimization. 

But once you have a handful of affiliate accounts set up and an understanding of search engine optimization in hand, you will be ready to start building your website - and effortlessly making money on the Internet!