If you ever had the desire to start your own online internet business from home, you may have never heard the word "affiliate programs" before. If you did come across this word before, you may also have found the affiliate program review opportunities available that are online are overwhelming. So where do you begin?

Affiliate Programs - Know how

Affiliate programs may be the easiest online business to start running. Why?

With any online business you must have a product or service to sell. First you must create this product or service and then you must be able to fill orders or find people who will sell it for you for a hefty commission.

Selling your own product or service also means creating a website, learning how to write ad copy, setting up a marketing plan, being able to accept payments online and obviously doing the work. If you're selling a physical product then you will need to make or buy the item, package it and pay for shipping costs. If you provide a service than you will likely have to start by doing free jobs to build your credibility and then when you are charging for your service you are still limited by how much work you can actually handle.

The magic of affiliate programs

starting with an affiliate program is a great way to get started in the online business world. In fact there are even some 'Super Affiliates' who are making nice and comfortable full time incomes from affiliate programs.

So, what exactly are affiliate programs?

Affiliate programs allow you to sell another company's service or product and make a commission on every sale or lead. You do not even need to build a website, process the order, ship the product to the person, or anything like that. Your only job is to drive traffic (customers) to your affiliate link and hope that they click on it and buy the product.

An affiliate link is a special URL code that will identify customers coming to the company's site from your advertising. It will likely be the website address with a code attached to the end.

Some affiliate programs also have tiers. That means if someone who is interested in SELLING the product comes through your link and signs up you will also get a small percentage of THEIR earnings. This is also called internet network marketing.

How do you choose the right program?

Try to determine if people are buying or looking to buy that product or service online. Is it cheaper or more expensive? There are many sources for finding that information including free ones such as the Overture keyword tool.

When you have found an area that is popular then type the subject along with 'affiliate program' into your search engine and see which programs have services or products for that area. You can also use an affiliate program review directory.

When you have found a program that looks interesting you should read the terms of the program. Make sure that payouts are not based on a high commission earning or you may never see your money. Also try to choose programs with high commission rates. Often you will find e-books and downloadable software has the highest rates as there is no physical product to make or ship. If you are satisfied with the terms then you need to sign up - usually a simple process.

Starting your marketing efforts

The reason affiliate programs are so wonderful for beginners and starters is that you only need to focus on marketing it and not making the actual product itself.

Many affiliate programs have information on how to market and give you tools such as solo ads, product feeds and more. The Plug in Profit Site is exactly what an affiliate program should be like. It has all the right tools to marketing online such as writing articles, creating pay-per-click campaigns, commenting in online forums etc.