What are free affiliate programs, and why are they considered to be one of the best ways to make money in the 21st century?

Affiliate marketing is a venture wherein an individual (the affiliate) decides to promote a product or service, and in exchange, when a customer buys based off the affiliates recommendation, the affiliate is paid a portion of the income as a commission. Think of affiliate marketing as being sort of like being an online salesperson, while the free affiliate program you choose do promote is your employer.

Here's how to become a great affiliate marketer in 8 easy steps.

1. Decide whether you're in or you're out. Affiliate marketing is not the simplest means of earning income. If you're looking for "easy," get a McJob flipping burgers or doing customer service. Affiliate marketing requires that you be intelligent, resourceful, and entrepreneurial. The benefits offered by various free affiliate programs are usually enough to get you started down the path.

2. Learn basic web programming. While you can get away without knowing any programming at all, having a good understanding of HTML markup and even a basic programming language like PHP will get you far, and you'll be ahead of about 90% of your competition. Free affiliate programs usually do not offer services that teach you how to program. This you'll have to learn on your own.

3. Get up to speed on marketing and advertising techniques. Unless you're coming from a background in marketing or you have a MBA, the most experience you've likely had with the subject is being the recipient of advertising. You must learn how to create ads that sell, or at least be able to recognize good ad copy from bad copy if you choose to outsource your advertising development. A free affiliate program may offer you advertising examples you can use as your own.

4. Find a free affiliate program that can mentor you. Many of the best free affiliate programs offer a section for new affiliates that can get you up to speed on the efficient promotion of their product or service. Some programs will even give you a free version of their product to help you better understand promotion methods.

5. Decide what marketing methods you want to use. There are a multitude of ways to get people visiting your affiliate promotions. Some are free, while some cost money. Free methods usually take time, whereas paid marketing generally has more immediate results.

6. Build your affiliate marketing campaign. This is where everything you've learned above comes together. Your first attempts may bomb. Don't fret. Persistence pays off in affiliate marketing, and since you've chosen to promote products from free affiliate programs, your investment is minimal.

7. Launch! This is the easiest part. Sit back and see what happens.

8. Analyze the results. And this is the most important part. If you don't understand what's happening in your campaigns, and how to fix it, then you won't be successful. Your free affiliate program may offer resources which will help you better understand the results of your marketing.

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