You’ve probably read the term affiliate marketing dozens or maybe hundreds of times online, so what is affiliate marketing?  Affiliate marketing is simply an agreement between you and a merchant in which you help promote the merchant’s product for a share of the profits of each sale.  

You can promote the products a variety of ways, but the links that take potential customers to the merchant’s website are coded to notify him or her that the customer came from your efforts, and you’re paid whatever the agreed upon percentage of the sale might be.

If that sounds simple, maybe even too good to be true, consider that affiliate marketing is one of the top ways to make money online, just because it is so simple. 

There are also different types of affiliate marketing programs that require different things. 

What is affiliate marketing if it’s pay-per-click?  This means that each time a potential customer clicks on your link to the merchant’s website, you earn money. 

What is affiliate marketing if it’s pay-per-lead?  Each time a potential customer clicks on your link and then registers at the affiliate website, you get paid. 

What is affiliate marketing if it’s pay-per-sale?  This is the most common.  When someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase at the merchant’s website, you get paid a percentage of those profits, or your commission. 

Many people who want to make money online try to take a traditional store model and transfer it to a website.  This involves handling physical products, storing them somewhere until they’re purchased, shipping them once they’re purchased, having expensive merchant accounts to enable you to accept credit cards, paying hosting fees for a business website account, and many more expenses and hassles.

And just because you set up a store online, doesn’t mean you’ll succeed.  You have to promote to bring in new business and you have to do it correctly to target the right people.  

Online stores, with their ease of set up, fail at a high rate because many people don’t understand all the things they need to do to succeed. But affiliate marketing requires none of that hassle.  You don’t even necessarily have to have a website in order to make money affiliate marketing.  By posting advertisements online or writing articles you can use your links to direct people to the product you’re marketing and make money that way. Of course, if you already have a website, then placing an ad to the products is an easy way to get people to click and purchase, and shouldn’t be overlooked.  

Not only does affiliate marketing benefit you by earning you profits for products you don’t have to handle, store, pay for or ship, but it’s good for the merchant, too.  They get free advertising from you, and increased sales that make it well worth the commission paid to you.

So, what is affiliate marketing?
Great, easy way for anyone to make extra money online. 

In the past few years, everyone has been going on and on about marketing businesses and products online, but what exactly is the definition of internet marketing?  Is it as simple as throwing up a website and emailing a few people about it?  Well, yes and no.  So far, the definition of what constitutes internet marketing isn’t really set, but there are some things people agree on.

First, it’s not always necessary to have a website to do internet marketing.  It’s very useful, yes, and you’ll get many more customers if you have one.  

However, you can send out emails, participate in message board discussions, and even join chat rooms to market your products and services without ever making a website.

One aspect of internet marketing that doesn’t really work, despite what your email inbox might show, is spam.  Well, spamming messages and emails, anyway (there are other types that are somewhat useful).  Yes, emailing people about your products is a good marketing idea, but if the recipient doesn’t want to know about what you have to offer, he or she will simply mark your email as spam.  Be sure the people you email actually want to get your emails before you send them.

So what’s good spam, then?  It really depends on how you look at it.  One popular practice of getting your site out there is to read people’s blogs and post comments, then add your site link in either the name area or at the end of your post.  Since you’re actually responding to what they say, it’s not exactly spamming.  On the other hand, you’re writing a comment more or less just to get your site’s link on the blog, so it is spam in a way.  

Is spam even in the definition of internet marketing then?  Again, it’s really hard to say.  Certainly sending mass emails to people who don’t care about your service isn’t useful and a waste, but sometimes posting on message boards and blogs brings people to your site.  

Another dubious method of internet marketing lies with social networks like MySpace and Facebook. Starting a profile on these sites for your products or services can bring in hundreds of new customers since these sites have millions of people on them.  However, adding people to your friends list just to get your name out there is, to some, more obnoxious spamming that isn’t welcome.

What it all comes down to is that you want to get your name and website, if you have one, out to as many people online as you can, but you don’t want to be annoying about it.  That’s where internet marketing is really different from offline marketing.  Flyers, billboards, and ads in newspapers are much more easily ignored than popup ads, spam emails, and hundreds of friend requests on MySpace.  

Basically, when it comes to online marketing, a good rule to remember is that if you wouldn’t want to see it, don’t send or post it.  If you’re selling pet related products, for example, you probably shouldn’t send a friend request to someone who says they don’t like animals.  All in all, “Don’t spam” seems to be perhaps the best definition of internet marketing out there.

Article marketing is a form of online advertising that allows businesses to advertise or market themselves by writing short article content pieces that relate to the industry they are in. These articles are then made available for widespread online publication and distribution in the marketplace. Every one of these articles contains a byline and a biography box that allows businesses to include references to their company, website or contact information. By crafting well written content and releasing it for this type of free distribution, businesses gain the potential of significantly increasing their credibility within the industry as well as reaching out to new clients in the process.

Article marketing has been a popular means of marketing one’s company or website by professionals for nearly as long as mass print methods have been available. Article marketing is utilized in paper-print formats as well as online formats, especially by businesses that want to obtain free press space. By providing useful content to a newspaper free of charge, the business is getting its name and contact information out there. Because newspapers and other forms of media are aiming to present content as cost effectively as possible, this arrangement is one that can be advantageous for all involved parties.

For example, an accounting firm that is looking to market itself through article marketing may use an article like “The top 5 ways to avoid an audit”, offering this article to the local newspapers and other print forms weeks before tax season. Not only is the accounting firm providing useful information, but they are also getting their name out there when it is most important for them to do so. On that same vein of thinking, a roofing company can offer a concise article about “avoiding ice damage on your roof this year” right before the winter season begins to get some free publicity just before the busy season begins.

Article marketing has moved into the internet world as well, ever since e-commerce and online marketing became vital for the success of businesses with web presences. Online article marketing provides publishers with free content while giving free advertising to advertisers and companies. Websites that allow articles to be posted are called article directories. Article directories make their income through advertising on their website, which is why business owners and other advertisers can post their articles for free. Because the article directory sites have significant search engine popularity based on the number of articles that are posted, advertisers can take advantage of that popularity and gain some of their own popularity through posting articles.

Article marketing online has additional dimensions beyond regular print marketing with articles, including the use of particular keywords and niches for search engine optimization. Using informative content, authors are able to reach their target audiences by catering to a group of readers that is already clearly interested. Many online marketers have enjoyed such success through this means of marketing that they have published hundreds if not thousands of articles.

Google’s advertising product and main source of their revenue. Adwords offers pay-per-click advertising for text and banner ads. When advertisers use Adwords to promote their product or service, their ads appear on any related website that is using Adsense.

Adwords advertisements are short, and consist of a title and two content lines. Advertisers pick keywords that relate to that their ad, and then bid on these keywords. They pay each time someone clicks on their ad. The advertisement will take the clicker to the merchant’s website.

Keywords cost more when they are more popular. For example, if a lot of people are bidding on the word “internet marketing” then cost per click will be much higher. Depending on the keyword, a click may cost anywhere from $0.10 to several dollars.

Mastering the use of Google Adwords and effective pay-per-click campaign management is one of the keys to success in online business.

Adsense is an ad serving program provided by Google. The program allows website owners to gain revenue by displaying ads on their websites. Google provides text, image and video advertisements that appear on participating websites. These ads appear based on the keywords and content present on the website.

Adsense has become one of the most popular methods to gain revenue from a website through advertising space. Adsense ads are less intrusive than traditional ads. Since the ads are picked based on the content of the website, the ads are also more relevant than traditional banners.

Web masters are paid when an Internet user clicks on an ad on their web page. Depending on the ad, the revenue may be a few cents up to a dollar per click. The ads used in Adsense are gathered from participants in Google’s Adwords advertising program.

Since web masters are paid regardless of whether anything is purchased at the advertiser’s site, it may be tempting for the web master to click on all of the ads on his or her site. However, Google watches for this type of activity, which is called “click fraud.” If a web page is showing signs of click fraud, a web master may lose their access to Google Adsense permanently.

Web masters can discreetly encourage clicks on their website by using three main techniques:

1. They can use a wide range of traffic generating techniques to get more visits to their website.
2. They can add valuable content to their site, to attract Adsense ads that pay higher per click.
3. They use copy on their website to encourage visitors to click on the ads. Some of the most common phrases are “Sponsored Links” and “Advertisements.” It is against Google Adsense policy to post statements like “Please click on my Adsense links.”

Find out how to become a successful Adsense publisher at Adsense Success Blueprint. If you love blogging, then I suggest you also check Wordpress Private Tutorial to discover how to make money using Wordpress and Adsense program.

Minisite is single website that has sole purpose to make its visitors do one action. Usually, that action would be to make a purchase. Minisite is as a sales letter to a direct marketer as it is for internet marketer. One thing that differs minisite from a sales letter is that minisite is usually equip with these graphics:

1. Header Graphic
   It’s a graphic on top of a minisite.
2. Cover Graphic
   It’s a graphic that represents the product being sold.
3. Order Button Graphic
   It’s a button that people click when making a purchase.
   
4. Footer Graphic
   It’s a graphic at the bottom of a minisite. Usually, copyright statement is shown here.

If you are planning to create a minisite, then you can have your graphic made by designers, or create them yourselves. However, trying to create minisite graphics yourselves is a time consuming task, unless you have the right tool to help you save time.

Get your FREE tools to create your own minisite graphics here:  Sales Booster Graphics

Authority site is a website that has strong influence in a certain niche or to a large percentage of Internet population. This kind of website has a large amount of traffic coming to the website and also many links pointing to the website. Thus, making this website’s ranking at the top page of search engine results for topics it covers.
Technically, you can identify an authority website by checking its PageRank or Alexa Ranking. You can also notice that an authority website has many contents inside it, thus creating a longer time per view for each of their visitors.

Source of income for authority website usually comes from selling ad space in return of giving away free quality content. Some of them also selling products or getting commissions from transactions conducted by their visitors.

Rebrand Rights are a set of rights that allow you to rebrand a product, resell it and keep 100% of the profit.

Usually, with a rebrandable product you can modify certain parts of the product that will bring you additional profit, besides profit from selling the product itself.

For example, with a rebrandable ebook, you can add your name, your website address and also your affiliate links of products that are recommended by the ebook.

This way you can profit by having your name at the product (branding) and also from affiliate commission should your customers purchase through your affiliate links.

Private Label Rights (PLR) is a set of rights that allow you to claim a product as your own (as if you’re the creator).  Certainly, you can the product at any price and keep the profit 100% for yourself.

There are basically two kinds of PLR.

1. PLR that allows you to modify the product.

For an example, if you bought a PLR to an ebook, usually you will get files in editable format (MsWord, Text, HTML). You can later edit this and transform it into PDF files.

2. PLR that does not allow you to modify the product.

An example of this is a PLR to an autoresponder service like Aweber.  You can sell their service using your own label. However, you cannot in anyway modify Aweber autoresponder system. The system is strictly belong to Aweber.

This type of PLR sometimes called Rebrand Rights, however Rebrand Rights also have other meaning which is widely used.

Master Resell Rights (MRR) are a set of rights that allow you to resell a product AND sell the resell rights as well.

That means, you can have two streams of income. From selling the product itself and selling the resell rights.

When purchasing a product with MRR, you must check out if the number of MRR offered is limited or not. If it is not, most likely you will end up facing thousands of competitors. The worst part, if the pricing in not restricted also, you will see the product’s value goes to the bottom, at the speed of a light.

Choose your product well, and you’ll be OK!