Can You Make Money From Internet Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is where you earn income from the sales of other people's products or services. This is a way of selling which has been in existence for many years, but has really been exploded by the growth of the internet and the approach in which you can take to generate sales. In terms of the types of products that are sold through affiliate marketing this can be anything from bird cages (which Frank Kern famously made significant revenue from), to Holidays or even software products and everything in-between. Essentially if a business is looking to sell a product or service and it has a margin that enables a third party to earn an income or income stream from a sale this can enable an affiliate arrangement to take place.

There are several different arrangements that an affiliate programme can take, and this can either be through a third party or alternatively directly to the company which is selling the product. In the former the third party may offer a wide range of affiliate programmes and manage the reporting, payments and also the approval of affiliates on behalf of the advertiser.

There are an ever increasing number of affiliate networks, some of which will push the boundaries more than others. As with any business transaction it is important to underwrite the risk associated with the organisations that are going to be holding cash and are in charge of payments. Again dealing directly with a company which is selling a product can have it's advantages, but if you are dealing with multiple companies this can mean that you can end up with hundreds of relationships. The alternative being, if you use an affiliate network, these relationships could be managed through one or several companies.

ClickBank is an example of one of the larger affiliate networks, which promotes a variety of software, information products and other services. They have a huge and ever increasing number of products which they sell. They have reporting that offers tracking of how many clicks have been reported onto certain links, in addition to how many order forms have been viewed and the subsequent sales that have been generated meaning that the conversion rates are easily monitored.

One of the risks of using affiliate networks and any type of affiliate advertising is that you are reliant on a third party. So if you have invested significant time and effort into building a website or blog around a specific niche and then subsequently the company no longer decide to continue with this business stream this can leave you on a limb. I have come across numerous examples where this has repeatedly happened. Also, there are examples of individuals not being paid for sales that certainly does raise some eyebrows from time to time. Again, ensure that you research any organisations that you are looking to work with prior to investing time and money into building your business.

So, to go back to the original question, can you make money from affiliate marketing? Without a shadow of a doubt there is money to be made. It can be difficult. It can be competitive, it can take some time to generate results, but time and time again results are generated. As with anything in life sometimes things take some perseverance, however if you are prepared to go through this process then money can be made, fact!

Some of the top earning affiliates of CPA networks, or Cost Per Action networks (where you are paid when a visitor to a site completes a specific action, i.e. filling in a form or something similar) have reportedly earned many millions of pounds from driving traffic to particular offers. However, in my experience it is important to understand that these types of results are unlikely from one person sitting at home building a few websites and doing some Google AdWords to generate some traffic. Those millions are built through highly sophisticated business models which you can strive to achieve when have generated a steady stream of income through finding profitable niche(s) which is imperative.

Visit http://www.webaffiliatetools.com for more news and information for affiliate products.