Millions of people are looking for ways to make a part time or full time income online.
Some people think that having your own website selling your own product or service is the only way to make a living online, but that's an incorrect assumption.
Not only do you not need your own product or service, but you don't even technically need a website! If you haven't got your own product or service to sell or if you don't have a website, affiliate programs are your best option.
With affiliate programs, you can earn money by promoting other company's products and services.
It's simple, you promote the products or services by placing ads on other websites, using pay per click advertising or by placing the ads on your own website and you collect a commission on any sales the company makes from the traffic you send them.
The commission can be a percentage of sales or a flat rate, every affiliate program is different.
There are many types of affiliate programs, you'll surely find one that you will feel comfortable promoting.
From jewelry to electronics, from big department stores to small mom and pop shops, there are programs available in every niche.
Promoting Affiliate Programs Once you have selected an affiliate program to promote, you have many options to begin driving traffic to the company.
For those with websites, you can place banners or text links on your sites or add a store with products using the program's datafeed.
For those without a website, you can drive traffic to the company by purchasing pay per click advertising on networks like Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN AdCenter or by buying advertising on forums and websites or buying ads in e-zines and newsletters.
For those with a subscriber list, you can advertise the program in your newsletters or do a solo mailing.
Though it's certainly not required to have a website to promote affiliate programs, it's a great things to have.
You don't have to know how to build a fancy website though, you can sign up at one of the many free blogging websites and add affiliate links to your posts or to the sidebar of your blog.
You can also choose to build your own online presence to promote affiliate programs.
It's not as hard or as expensive as you may think.
For instance, you can get your own domain name for less than $9 per year, add to that somewhere to host your website, that's just a few bucks a month.
Many web hosts will even include website building software that will allow you to put together your own website very easily with templates.
Then add your own content, like articles, tips, photos etc.
and then add your affiliate links to that.
It's a super easy and cheap way to start earning affiliate income.