RichTrack.com explains what affiliate marketing is all about and how much money you can make. RichTrack.com will help you to become an affiliate. RichTrack.com has reviewed best Affiliate Program Providers (APPs) and here you can find our top APPs ranking. Also you find a lot of resources which help you to promote merchant’s products and get money in lucrative world of affiliate marketing.

Basic Idea

Affiliate marketing is a type of marketing in which revenue sharing between online merchants and online salespeople (affiliates), whereby compensation is based on performance measures, typically in form of sales (Pay Per Sale), clicks (Pay Per Click) and impressions (Pay Per Impressions).

Merchants run affiliate programs to generate leads and sales from other Web sites. They pay an affiliate to generate sales from a button, banner, or link placed on affiliate’s website, newsletter, e-mail or pay per click ad. For example, if a site owner signs up for any merchant’s affiliate program, he will receive banners or links from this merchant that he can place anywhere on his site. Then, if a visitor clicks on this banner or a link on his site and buys something, he will receive a commission.

The introduction of affiliate programs in late 1990s brought Internet marketing to a new level. The first companies that offered these programs saw sales increase dramatically. These companies basically get free advertising and only pay their affiliates a percentage of sales they generate. It's a win-win situation for company that runs affiliate program.

Now there are thousands of companies in hundreds of industries that will pay commissions to you for sales, leads or impressions.

How does it work?

1. First of all you are looking for products and services sold online and used an affiliate program.

2. Then you should sign up for free as a reseller (affiliate). How to become an affiliate you can find below.

3. After that you should advertise these products and services. How to promote them you can find below.

4. After all you’ll receive commission checks.

How to become an affiliate?

There are two ways to become an affiliate:

1. Some merchants have their own affiliate programs. You can join them on their sites.

In return, affiliate receives a percentage of sales generated.

Having worked with affiliate programs for several years now I can vouch that's it possible to make a very comfortable living working from home with affiliate programs.

Sure there are downsides - there can be sales tracking issues; dud affiliate programs, and there's always those dreaded returns and commission chargebacks.

But upside more than makes up for it: you get to be your own boss; you can set your own hours; you're building a potentially enormous recurring stream of income; and there's no workplace politics or overbearing boss to hound you.

But best part is this: potential to make money is unlimited - there is no glass ceiling.

So if affiliate programs are such a great concept - why do statistics tell us that only 5% of affiliate marketers ever make money online?

Why aren't more affiliates making more money?

In my online experience I've seen a few affiliate websites that are genius at selling. Most however make several deadly mistakes that are probably costing them thousands of dollars in sales.

Here are 3 top reasons why 95% of affiliate websites don't make more money and how you can steer clear of pitfalls:

Reason #1: Trying to sell too many products.

Have you ever visited a website and been knocked senseless with sales offers? Banners flashing, moving text - moving up, down, left to right, right to left, bright laughing images bouncing across your screen.

Then pop-ups come - pop-ups, pop-unders, pop-overs. It's non-stop sales-pitch overload - and you can't get out of there fast enough. It takes you a full five minutes to re-focus your eyes once you manage to escape from website

Ok, some affiliate websites aren't that bad but you get point.

While working for a bank several years back, I learned one of #1 rules of sales: "A confused mind always says 'No'." If you give someone too many options, too many choices, or even too much information too quickly - they won't buy anything. They will always say 'No' to sale.

Solution? Reduce confusion and you'll INCREASE sales.

Top affiliates will tell you to focus on one or two products per website (or per web page). Never more than that.

If you want to increase your conversion rate, stop selling so many products on one website. Focus on top one or two that make you most sales. You'll then have a lot more customers saying 'yes' and putting cash in your pocket.

Reason #2: Website theme is too general.