Even after we have our own products, promoting affiliate products that don't compete with our own provides another income stream, which is always welcome.

What exactly is Affiliate Marketing?

Simply put, it boils down to one basic action - getting paid a commission for referring customers to a merchants website.

There are two basic rules to remember about promoting affiliate products:

1. It is your job to locate potential customers and provide them with the benefits of the product. It's always helpful to share benefits you have personally received from the product. Discuss a problem you had and how the product helped you solve it.

In other words, it's your job to get the customers interested and excited - and get them to visit the merchants sales page.

2. It is the merchant's job to sell the product. One of the biggest mistakes affiliates make is in trying to sell the actual product instead of the benefits. Let your merchant tell them about the features and do the actual selling.

Following this advice will result in the merchant selling more products - and you making more commissions.

The reason promoting affiliate products is so popular with new online businesses is that it's not necessary to have a large outlay of money to get started. There are many ways to promote affiliate products for little or no cost at all.

The one investment you should make, however, is your own website(see video above).

Before customers will make a purchase from you they need to trust you, believe that you know about the product you're promoting. Creating a content-rich website will provide the platform for building that trust and credibility with your customers.

If you take some time and optimize your website for the search engines, you will receive traffic that is targeted to your niche. This is another no-cost endeavor - and well worth your time!

Traffic generation is the lifeblood of a successful website and to building a successful affiliate business. Marketers use different methods to generate targeted traffic, including search engine optimization, traditional advertising , email marketing, viral marketing and article marketing.

Now that you have your website up and running, it's time to choose affiliate programs to work with. Obviously, you're looking for products that match or enhance your niche, but how do you choose the programs that will work for you?

There are several things you'll want to research before choosing an affiliate program. Surprisingly, it may not be the highest commissions that will work best for you! You need to consider the merchant's site conversion rate, does the merchant offer tools (graphics, ads, emails, etc.), Is the program one-tier or two-tier? For more in-depth information read "Choosing An Affiliate Program".

In this section you'll find information on many facets of promoting affiliate products, as well as tips, tools and resources to help you get started buiding your affiliate business or growing your existing business.