Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

Luckily for those of us who make our living online, affiliate programs are real deal and they're helping to sell products on all kinds of sites, from smallest sole proprietorships to largest conglomerates.

People use affiliates because they're a win-win situation for all concerned; others promote your site and get a cut of each sale and you get more sales overall.

Let's say you sell cute products for pets on your website and you also run a monthly ezine that features pet news and sales. You want to increase your sales by letting your "affiliates" promote your site.

Here's how it works...

1. You sign up with an affiliate tracking program.

2. You decide how much you're going to pay your affiliates for each sale; it could be a percentage or a straight figure, and it can vary for each item.

3. You work with affiliate program to set up a system tailored to your needs; for example, you may want to write checks to your affiliates yourself or you may want affiliate tracking company to write them.

4. You design a page on your site and write a blurb for your newsletter that describes how your affiliates can make money promoting your site.

5. You design some buttons, banners and text links that your affiliates can use to promote your site.

6. You sit back and wait for affiliates to sign up and start selling your products!

The tracking program takes care of rest, and you or your affiliates can look up your stats at any time.

1. Seek out affiliate products that generate fifteen dollars or more in commission. Anything in twenty-dollar range works well. Paying for clicks can add up quickly and when you do make a sell, it should be profitable.

2. The vendor must present a high quality website with first-rate graphics. If site appears to be unprofessional, any potential buyer will loose confidence and leave before sell is made.

3. Make it a requirement that vendor website only displays one product or service on referral page. Nothing kills a sell faster than having to many sells messages.

4. The vendor needs to include outstanding sales copy. It's easy to realize importance of this principle; words are what turn shoppers into buyers on Internet.