The quickest way to find merchants with affiliate programs and browse their products is to go directly to an Affiliate Network.
Clickbank, Paydotcom and Commission Junction are three popular ones.
Browsing the categories may give you even more ideas about products you'd like to promote. Take the time to look at commission rates, affiliate requirements and other fine print information. Make sure the commission you'll earn is worth your time.
Look at payment options and times. How often does the merchant pay or network pay? How are affiliates paid? Some programs pay at least once a month. Some pay only 3 or 4 times a year. What is required to qualify for the affiliate program?
Some merchants require completed applications, established websites and specific traffic numbers before issuing approval. Others automatically approve all applicants.
With Clickbank and Paydotcom approval is usually instant and automatic. Commission Junction features merchants that have varying requirements. Some will approve you even if you don't have a website. Others have stricter requirements.
There are other affiliate networks. We've included a list of them in the Resource section at the end of this report. The three we're focusing on here tend to be the most popular and the easiest to get signed up for.
Signing Up
Sign up at with the affiliate network that has the products you wish to promote. You might want to go ahead and sign up at all three. There's no charge to do so.
Once you are approved at Clickbank and Paydotcom, you choose the particular products you wish to promote. Whenever you choose a product, you're given a special code that identifies you. This code is attached to the link that leads to the product page. This is your affiliate link.
Example of an affiliate link: http://product.·com/user/4532. You may have seen affiliate links in your web browser's address page before. Since this link is an example and not a real one, it doesn't work.
One of the first thing you'll probably want to do as an affiliate marketer is to find a way to hide that code. Unfortunately, there are people who will change it or delete it, thereby cheating you out of a commission. There are several free and paid methods. We'll cover them late.
Find 2 or 3 products for the top 2 or 3 ideas on your list. Bookmark the site(s) featuring them. You might even want to print out a copy of the site for reference later when you get into keyword selection.
Checklist:
. Sign up for an affiliate account.
. Choose 1 to 3 products.
. Copy and paste your affiliate link into notepad for later use.
Pay Per Click Affiliate Marketing
What is pay per click affiliate marketing? It is the use of pay per click ads to sell products and/or services. When website owners and affiliate marketers use pay per click marketing, they write keyword based ads.
Once the ads are written, placement is decided by bid amount. There is no charge for ad placement until someone clicks on the ad. The key to success in pay per click is creating an eye-catching ad containing specific, focused keywords and monitoring ad cost.
When someone surfs the net and clicks on the ad, the cost is equal to the bid amount that has been set. For instance, if the bid is .$05 on the keyword hypnotherapist, a nickel will be deducted from the pay per click account every time someone clicks on the ad featuring the word hypnotherapist.