Affiliate Marketing.................................................

Affiliate Marketing is a proven way to make money on the internet. If you've heard of it, you've probably heard of people making anywhere from $100,000 to $300,000 a year. I'm not saying I doubt thouse stories ,but to make that much...you would need to do a LOT of Affiliate Marketing for alot of companies.

Affiliate Marketing IS my main source of income, I'm not making $300,000 a year ,but I'm making enough to pay for college, my condo payments, my car payments and have money left over to invest in the stockmarket (cv industries & plexmar to name a few). Well, I might as well just let you know the number. I make around $4000 to $5500 a month just from Affiliate Marketing using Google's Adwords. It wasn't always like that though, my first month doing Affiliate marketing I made around $700 & the cost of using adwords was around $50. Here is my first cheque I got a couple years ago:

Google Adwords is basically an advertisement program they have set up. Everytime someone puts in a search, sites are shown and on the right side there are ads. Affiliate marketers place ads for other companies and receive a commission for each lead or sale.

When you place an ad through Google Adwords, they charge you per click, not per view. The rate of how much they charge per click depends on the keyword you bid on. The more popular the keyword - the more expensive the Cost Per Click (CPC) is.

Commission ranges from 1%-75% of sales. If you are promoting a physical product (one that can be counted as inventory), than commission will be lower. For example) books, laptops, cds, tires.
If you are promoting a program or something that can be downloaded, then the commission is very high (usually 50%-75%), because it doesn't cost them much to sell more. For example)Ipod software, PS2/PSP/XBOX software, DVD copying software.

From experience, i find that you make more money promoting products that can be downloaded & also for leads. A Lead is when you refer a customer to a site, but the customer does not buy anything. Insurance companies usually pay for leads such as free quotes. These are usually easier to gain commission on because the customer doesn't need to spend a cent, but you get about $4-$10 per lead.

If you expect to make $4000 a month without putting any work into it, then you are dearly mistaken. But it is very possible and it all depends on how much work you put into it. Once you set everything up, you don't have to do much ,but fine tune the ads every now and then if you contempt with the amount you're making. For example....If I went on vacation today to a confined area without internet access, I would still make the same amount daily. Google Adwords puts out ads for you everyday without you having to do anything.

Well thats the logic behind making money as an Affiliate Banker..If you are interested, read on and we will get more technical....I will continue to post as I have time.

Getting Started.....................................................

The first thing you should sign up for is Google Adwords. You can sign up for it at https://adwords.google.com/ . It's run by Google, which is a billion dollar company, so you have no fear of it being a "scam" or anything of that nature. It costs $10 to sign up and you can set the daily advertising cost to your liking. My daily budget is $20 , but I suggest $3.00 for a starting amount. If you set it at $3.00, then your monthly advertising cost will only be around $90. You have to understand that this money is not going to waste. The more clicks you get from Adwords, the more potential you have of getting commission from your affiliate companies.

The next thing you should sign up for is Clickbank . It is free to sign up. Clickbank is a place where you can search for affiliate programs, or products to promote. Clickbank however, only offers products that can be downloaded...so you get a high commission rate. They act as a middleman between the Company owners and you, the affiliate. Companies will pay Clickbank, and Clickbank will pay you - the affiliate. This way, you don't have to worry about companies not paying you for promoting their product. Clickbank takes care of everything.

After signing up for clickbank, you should sign up for Commission Junction. It's basically like Clickbank, except it promotes physical products(products that can be counted as inventory). A lot of big name companies such as The Gap, Geico, T-Mobile and EBAY use Commission Junction to promote their products. Commission Junction (CJ), is a lot more professional than clickbank, although you can make a lot of money from both companies.

Now that you have signed up for Google Adwords, Clickbank & Commission Junction, you're almost ready to start making money. Search through Clickbank & CJ to see what companies you would like to work for, then apply. Most companies give approval right away, while some approve affiliates manually. It's a good idea to work for companies that give a high commission rate, as this will make you the most money.

A reccommended ebook that you should pick up, is called Google Cash. Google Cash really helped me get started with Adwords. It shows you how to bid on popular words for less money, how to get more views & tons more. Its crucial that you master the Adwords system because if your promotion isn't right, you can't make very much money. Google Cash will show you step by step how to make Google Adwords a profitable experience.

Now that you know the the basics of affiliate marketing, you can use the Google Cash guide to start you successful advertising campaign!