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How to make money on the Internet - using affiliate
programs
source - wikipedia
Most Web-site businesses fall into one
of two categories:
Information sites are vital, but how
can they generate income? If not a fortune, then at least enough to
sustain (or help pay for) the site itself? But, no matter what type
of business you're engaged in, it's doubtful you'd complain about an
opportunity to turn your informational Web site into an income
stream.
Getting started
Unfortunately, the barriers to selling on-line can be high. If you
only have a few items, then you can easily set up a secure site
using NetObjects Fusion and its e-commerce components.
Setting up a comprehensive retail site—say an Amazon Books or CDNow—requires
substantial resources, both financial and otherwise. But now, a
growing number of companies are tackling the issue of making Web
commerce easier from a number of directions.
Selling someone else's products
The ideal commerce solution for the informational-site operator is
one that requires little or no time to maintain and transfers all of
the responsibility of order-taking and fulfillment to someone else.
Sound too good to be true? It's not. It's what has become known
on-line as an affiliate program.
Under the typical affiliate program, you simply provide a link from
your site to someone else's retail site. While some affiliate
programs only allow for site-to-site linking, others let you link to
specific products on the retail site, allowing you to highlight your
favorite products on your own site.
Here are some examples: Let's say you have a florist shop,
and your Web site tells people about your goods and services. Using
an affiliate program, you can point people to books about flower
arranging, party and wedding planning, and other activities that
could benefit from using the flowers they buy from you. You could
even point people to travel services that can help plan a honeymoon.
Or, perhaps you run a travel agency. You can point your site
visitors to the best travel books, or books about exotic locales, or
a screen saver with beautiful pictures from around the world, or
clothing or luggage they would find useful.
The important point is to send people to personally selected,
focused items. If someone comes to your site looking for information
about gardens, don't try to sell them books about auto racing.
The HTML code that makes up each link includes a unique identifier
that lets the retail site know that a customer "came in" through
your site. The retail site then keeps track of the purchases
generated from your site and pays you a percentage of those
purchases. Typical percentages range from 5 to 10 percent.
The best part of all of this is that it costs nothing to become an
affiliate. All of the "paperwork" at the retailer end is handled by
a computer, so it costs almost nothing to get you set up. And since
your site may generate business the retailer might have never seen
otherwise, they're more than happy to cut you a small piece of the
pie.
What can you sell?
The answer to this question is: just about anything you can imagine.
Below is a baker's dozen list of Web retailers that offer some sort
of affiliate relationship to other Web sites. I've included the
name, URL, and nature of each e-business. While I'm certain there
are many more affiliate programs out there, this is a good place to
start.
NetObjects Fusion (of course): It's what I use to create eFuse.
Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com books, CDs, software.
American Greetings http://www.americangreetings.com on-line greeting
cards.
AutoWeb http://www.autoweb.com new and used automobiles.
Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com books, CDs, software.
Child Secure http://www.childsecure.com baby care products.
Fogdog Sports http://www.fogdog.com sporting goods.
Garden.com http://www.garden.com gardening products.
Hand Technologies http://www.handtech.com computer-related products.
i/us http://www.i-us.com graphics-related software and products.
iCreditReport http://www.icreditreport.com consumer credit reports.
Reel.com http://www.reel.com videos.
The Electronic Newstand http://www.enews.com magazine subscriptions.
Travelocity http://www.travelocity.com travel-related services.
One way to find more affiliate programs is to visit your favorite
search engine and type in "become an affiliate."
Disclaimer
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How to Make Money on the Internet