The very first consideration is to sign up with your chosen affiliate program by filling up the requisite form on the site. Make sure that all the information you put down on form is correct and truthful since a majority of affiliate networks will be sending your commission payments in the form of check to the address that you have filled up in the form. Some programs will require you to include a link to your website, although this is usually an exception rather than the rule. Make sure you go through all the blanks you have filled up in case you have missed anything important.

Secondly, you will need to create your own affiliate link, double checking to see that it is accurate. A majority of affiliate network utilize cookie technology that works to identify you based on your affiliate link to help them identify which affiliate marketer made which referral. This method makes it easier for them to know which person to send the commission to when customers end up buying a product via the link from your website. On your end, it will also be wise to manually check your affiliate link from time to time to ensure that it leads back to your own website. Clicking on the payment link should bring you to your affiliate ID found either at the top or bottom of the webpage. This vigilance will ensure that you get the commission that is due you for each sale leading from your affiliate link.

The third thing, which is important for your affiliate marketing business is to have a website of your own to help you collect loyal subscribers. Part of Internet marketing requires you to follow-up with your clients through email, as most of your site’s visitors aren’t likely to buy the product you are promoting straightaway. You will need to get their pertinent contract details so you can continue to follow up with them with the opportunity you are offering. Providing them with good value, such as content and other freebies will enable you to establish a good relationship based on trust, thus securing their loyalty.

The commissions vary on different products, but are generally acceptable and not much lower than what other affiliate networks have to offer. Not to mention there are a lot of products for which there are no other advertisers.

It’s easy to get started: just register, pick a few of the various advertising methods, implement them and wait. That’s the basic version. If you want to go advanced and make some serious money, you have to start learning how to increase the traffic, improve the click through rate and conversion of your site.

Here are 5 basic tips that will help you get on the right track with making money from Amazon Associates affiliate program:

1.       Pick a good topic. This point is valid only if you are starting a new blog (you can’t change the topic of an already established site without hurting your popularity, reputation and rankings). You need to do a little research and pick a moderately popular niche (so you won’t have too many competitors) for which there are enough products with good commissions on Amazon for you to experiment with. For example, a blog about making money online will never convert as well for Amazon as a blog about books or printers.

2.       Implement early. Don’t wait until your blog is popular enough – start inserting links and experimenting with banners from the first post. This way you’ll already have advertising in place for when your articles get to the top of search engines or on Digg and similar social networks. And most importantly, you will learn what works and converts well on your site and how to improve it.

3.       Pick quality products. Obviously, you’ve got to pick the best products for your readers. And I don’t mean from the whole niche and for your site, but for separate posts, too. If you insert links to the best cheap laser printer on a post titled “Best cheap laser printers of 2009” and links to the best printers for an office on “The best printers for your office”, you will get a much higher conversion rate than if you just inserted random links to printers on Amazon in all your articles. This is a part of what they call “laser targeting”, which, as you can see, does not apply only to paid search.

4.       Don’t overhype. Hyping up a product, whether it’s good or bad, is never a good choice, because if and when the reader orders it based on your recommendation or link and sees that it is not what you said it will be, he will lose faith in you. That’s the worst thing that can happen. You’ve got to always consider the interests of the reader first, and if you review something, say it as it is, don’t try to make it seem better. Besides, that’s what point 3 is all about, you’ll never need to overhype a good product.

5.       Be transparent with your readers. I’m talking about disclosing the fact that all your links are affiliate links (and they should be). Most people are afraid that their readers will be angry at the fact that the author is making money on them. But that’s not true, because a) your links do not affect the price a customer pays in any way and b) If your content is good and you are giving out truthful and useful information and tips, you are providing value to your readers, and most of them will be happy that they helped you somehow in return. Of course, there will be the occasional “I’m not going to buy through your link…” people, but they’re the exception and should not bother you much. Just say “OK, you’re free to choose” and forget about it.

These tips would actually apply to most affiliate networks, so don’t limit your implementation just to Amazon Associates. Good luck!

1. Affiliate marketing
In affiliate marketing you put ads on your website and you are paid every time somebody you have reffered to webshop buy something. In the most cases you get from 4-75% commission but in other cases you get fixed amout of money per sale. The easies way to start with affiliate marketing is to join to one of the affiliate networks:

• CJ.com
• ClickBank

2. Direct banner sales
Direct banner sales is great way to make money. You can cut out middleman commissions and make prices more affordable for advertisers. But you have to have lots of traffic and great marketing skills to get advertisers.

3. Paid Surveys and Polls
There are companies which pay for running polls and small surveys. The most popular service is called Vizu.

4. Donations
If you have great community which is aware of your hardworking and have lots of benefits from you content you can put small Donation button on you website.

5. Selling an eBook
Many bloggers rewrite thier post in eBook and sell it online. EBooks are great for readers because it is easier to read book than searching all over the blog to find all useful posts.