On a regular basis, millions of us dutifully send payments to companies that host our websites. Given the growth that the Internet has experienced, it is no wonder that many of these companies have flourished.

According to published research, there were 2.6 million websites in 1998. By the year 2000, this figure had almost tripled to 7.1 million sites. By 2006, the most recent figures I could find, there were about 2 billion websites in existence. That is 280 times the number of websites that existed in the year 2000. Wow! And one thing is clear; there will almost certainly be more websites next year and the year after that than there are now.

But what does that mean to those of us that don’t own large website hosting companies? Is there a way that we can profit from this? Wouldn’t it be nice to start receiving checks from your web hosting company instead of the other way around?

You may be able to do this. Check with your web hosting company to see if they have an affiliate program. These programs are usually free to join so you have nothing to lose. Most web hosting affiliate programs will send you a percentage of the monthly sales that are generated by your efforts. If you send 100 people to the web host through your affiliate efforts and three of them open accounts paying ten dollars per month, you would receive a percentage of that $30 each month. If, over the course of a year, they opened 50 accounts through your efforts, you would earn a percentage of the $500 monthly amount. Each company has a different percentage that they pay their affiliates so the amount will vary from company to company. But wouldn’t it be nice to start receiving monthly checks instead of paying them?

Make no mistake, to be successful with affiliate sales is hard work. You have to market the program and get visitors to the affiliate site. There are many methods that you can use. I prefer to write articles, but you can use your blogs, free ads or any method you choose. I recommend that you use the free methods first. Then, if you decide that it is too much work, or you are not making any money, you can back out without losing any money.

If your web hosting company does not offer a program like this, you can find hundreds by doing a search. Make sure that the affiliate site that you sign up with is a reputable one. You don’t want to have subscribers coming back to you complaining that they were ripped off!