Before diving into the secrets of making affiliate income, first it's best to define what an affiliate program is.

An affiliate program is simply a program that allows other website owners to earn a commission from a sale of another website owners product simply by placing a linking code on their website. If a visitor clicks on that link and makes a purchase, than the affiliate makes a sale but also the person promoting that affiliates product will make a commission from that sale simply by refering that visitor to that particular link. It's a clean and easy way to add some extra income to your webite. But best of all, making money online through affiliate programs is simple and fun.

There are tons of marketing strategies to improve your income through the promotion of various affiliate programs, however it's best to test out various methods before you settle on a single one.

One of the best methods of promoting an affiliates product is through an opt-in page also known as a newsletter sign-up page or name squeeze page. Whatever name you choose to refer to it as, the main purpose is to gather the name of your visitor so that you can later follow-up with them. The page of this opt-in or name squeeze site provides key information about what they are going to get by signing up.

The key to an effectively written page that draws in sign-ups are those that include the following:

An Attention-grabbing Headline: This will tell the visitor what you're going to do for them and how you plan to solve their problem or how you plan to teach them how to do a certain task.

Bullet Points: Tell them what it is that they will get by signing up.

Simple Sign-up Box: This is the box where they can enter their name and email address. Ensure you place an anti-spam notice here ensuring them that you will not sell or rent their name to a third-party provider, nor will you send them junk mail. This clears up any scepticism they might have.

Another great way to promote an affiliate's product is by writing a review of their product.

But don't write a bunch of reviews on the same page. Consider writing your review as a single paged website that is promoting the product you are selling through that review. The advantage to creating a singe-page website review is that you can get highly targetted traffic and present that traffic with the exact information they are looking for. Your website visitors will be focused on that single page. They won't be distracted by other links and information. This focused strategy will make them more opt to buy the product that you have reviewed.

You could also consider offering a bonus if they purchase through your link. But don't make it too obvious that you're trying to get the sale. Be natural in your speech. But best of all, make sure you try the product first before writing your review. This ensures that your review sounds believable, honest and genuine - adding that extra bit of trust that your visitor needs to make their purchase.

About the Author:

Wayne Van Dyck is a former venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur. As an online infopreneur, he is the founder and developer ofhttp://www.SimpleMoneyMachines.com. Simple Money Machines is the first complete Internet-Business-In-A-Box. -- Simple Money Machines provides all the technology and training required for people getting started online. To get a FREE copy of "EARN WHILE YOU LEARN - The Two Step Automated System" go to: http://www.SimpleMoneyMachines.com.

Back to making-money