Affiliate marketing basically means selling other people’s products for a commission online.  Affiliate marketing is similar to offline sales where sales people earn a commission for selling a product; the difference is that all selling is conducted online. 

The sales are tracked through your unique affiliate ID which is assigned to you at the time you sign up for a specific affiliate program.   A good affiliate program will give you plenty of tools for promoting their products as well as a comprehensive member’s area where you can track your affiliate sales and commissions.

Affiliate marketing is a good way to get started online.  In fact, one of the best sources for learning affiliate marketing can be found at the Niche Blogging Institute You can be set up and ready to go within a few days and there is no need to spend any time creating your own products or purchasing inventory.  You are simply promoting other people’s products, which means the vendor is actually responsible for order fulfilment, customer service and anything else related to the sale – you simply refer the sale to them and get paid for doing so.

You can find programs by doing a search under your chosen topic such as “cooking” and adding the words “affiliate program” to that term.  You can also find affiliate programs at places like CJ.com.

Although affiliate marketing is an easy way to get started online, there is a little more to it than just throwing up a few links and banners and waiting for the affiliate check to arrive.  A good affiliate marketer knows it takes time and effort to make sales. 

Another good tip is to review the products you promote so that you can accurately describe all the features - good and bad.  Your customers will appreciate honest feedback and will be more likely to buy from you if you give them good quality information and honest reviews.