Online affiliate marketing began as a natural outgrowth of the popularity of “linking” to other sites. To put it simply, online affiliate marketing is a time tested strategy for making money online. It it is a network of online partners who refer business to your website.

It does not matter whether you have a website that sells a product or a website that has nothing to sell. But by adding online affiliate programs, you can not only add value to your website, but also maximize potential revenue.

Affiliate Programs, they say are the ideal way to make your website profitable.

Online affiliate programs began in the mid-1990,s and are currently a popular way to earn money online. In fact, research shows that affiliate marketing is the most cost-effective way to generate online sales. The concept of revenue sharing paying commission for referred business, predates affiliate marketing and the Internet. The translation of the revenue share principles to mainstream e-commerce happened almost four years after the origination of the World Wide Web in November 1994.

The simplest way is to just introduce your visitors to the business opportunities, products and services that they need, and, “make money online” based on commissions from these sales. In fact, online affiliate marketing is a great work from home business available to anyone with a computer and a desire to run their own affiliate business.

However, there is a catch to “affiliate-marketing”. That is to say over 80% of affiliates never get a check over $100, the 15% get the occasional check and it is the remaining 5% who really get monthly checks of any real size from affiliate programs.

To get started in affiliate marketing, you must know the fundamentals. For which you’re going to need an “affiliate marketing guide” to teach you the basics. Once you’ve studied the basics and grasped the “idea”, I don’t think there is any looking back.

Now, there are dozens of books advertised on various websites, making claims of massive earnings that can be achieved easily. Most of these guides are resell rights of other peoples’ ideas which are marketed under the marketers’ name. Now, there will be a time you may be doing the same thing what they are doing now. This is a natural phase most people go through and isn’t that what affiliate marketing is all about!

I am not saying those books are bad. But there are better ones out there. There is The Affiliate Marketers Handbook and the Super Affiliate Handbook. Recently, another book that is drawing much attention, purely because of the number of sales it has generated in such a short time is the Rich Jerk. The name justifies his character. But his ideas seem to work and the book seems to be on top of the charts. Now what more can you say, but to commend on his niche idea.

You can also look for more such good product(s) and which are in high demand from the ClickBank Mall. Just type “affiliate marketing” or affilate marketing guides and you would get instant access to loads to such products. Provide them your credit card details and voila! you can instantly download the book of your choice.

Although most aaffiliate marketing books are good in their own way, what boils down is to how you implement the knowhow you gained from it PRACTICALLY. Although this may take up some some time, it is to be noted that no books nor any marketing courses can come anywhere close to pure practical experience. Some good affiliate guides are given below in the resources section.

Learning to market on the internet as an affiliate is only step one. If you’re serious about online affiliate marketing, then you have to plan and set up a basic affiliate campaign. This is a start to finish campaign to getting started in affiliate marketing. It explains keyword research, finding profitable partners and markets, information on affiliate networks, guides and resources to making money online.

There is relatively an easy way to make a parallel income during the early stages of your online afiliate marketing home business. It can also help you avoid the common mistakes most of us make during that period. I am quoting this from personal experience.

Try and get hold of a FREE Web Page, containing a few successful affiliate programs. You can use it and learn how to run an affiliate campaign, at the same time learning the ropes of affiliate marketing. If you market this well, the chances are you will make money. Your main and only job would be to advertise your FREE website, by submitting it to search engines, e-mail it to friends, colleagues and others. Within a month or so, you shall see some income trickling in.

You also get familiar with search engine marketing, affiliate networks and affiliate directories, and other areas of online affiliate marketing.

The other day, I had a consultation with a chiropractor who had just spent thousands of dollars on “branding.”  Gorgeous logo.  Snappy website.  Beautiful, glossy brochures.

And not a damn thing to show for it.

That’s why he was calling me.

“Your problem is that you’ve spent so much time and money creating an ‘image’ that you’ve forgotten what people are really hungry for,” I said.  “And that’s a solution to their problem.”

I told him, “Folks don’t care what your logo looks like.  At the end of the day, there’s only one thing that’s going to pay your bills, and it ain’t ad agency gloss.  It’s creating actual value for your patients and prospects.”

This is a mistake I see small business owners make all the time: investing time, effort, and energy into “branding” that just doesn’t work.   Unless you’re a Fortune 500 company, or loaded with excess millions to blow on advertising, the idea of trying to “get your name out there” is basically useless—kind of like throwing a couple of teaspoons’ worth of water into the ocean and hoping someone notices.

Nope, small businesses have to build brand awareness the old fashioned way—by serving, and satisfying, customers…one, two, and three at a time.

So what can you do to avoid the fate of my overly image-conscious friend I told you about?  Here are three sure-fire rules of thumb for maximizing your marketing dollars.

1)—Spend at least 50% of your marketing budget internally.  Yes, you read that right.  At least 50% of your marketing budget should to go solidifying your relationships with your existing customers.  Keep in constant contact with them.  Make offers.  Send newsletters and birthday cards.  Marketing to your existing customers is usually up to 10 times more profitable than marketing to a cold list—so capture as much revenue as possible from the investment you made to get those customers in the first place.

2)—ALWAYS test.  Undoubtedly, you understand the value of tracking results to measure the response you’re getting to your marketing—but what about testing?  This is one of the best-kept secrets in marketing…and it can make you a TON of money. 

Whenever you run a new ad or promotion, always create two versions—and test one against the other.  For example, if you’re running a newspaper insert, buy 20,000 inserts and run 10,000 of one version against 10,000 of the other.  Or if you’re sending a direct mail piece, send one message to half your list, and a second message to the other half.  Then track results to see which is more profitable.  Whichever one wins becomes your new “control”—and then test future marketing pieces against it. 

There are two important things to remember when testing.  First, NEVER, ever change out your control until it gets beaten…even if you’re “in the mood” for a change.   And second, ALWAYS try to beat your control!  As you do, your response rates will creep steadily upward, and you’ll find you’re “genetically engineering” your marketing for ever-increasing success!

3)—Test Ugly First.  Some of the most successful marketing campaigns have been ugly.  What do I mean by that?  I mean they don’t have that slick “Madison Avenue” feel, but they get results like gangbusters.  NEVER spend the money to “gloss up” your look and feel UNTIL you’ve tested and proven a message that gets results.