Affiliate program is a company in which another company has a minority interest or a company which is related to another company in some manner. Usually affiliate programs consist of some type of arrangement between an online merchant web site and the actual affiliate. The merchant will pay a commission to the affiliate according to how much traffic they send to the site.

The commission can be base on the number of people who actually purchase something or another action like completed forms, “click throughs”, and page views.  So if a link of the affiliate site brings money or traffic to the merchant site, the affiliate is paid according to the agreement. Affiliate marketing is a very inexpensive but effective means for internet marketing.

In the past, affiliate programs were only available to people running websites of their own. If an affiliate had one of their viewers click a link on their page that led them to purchase something on another page, they would get compensated for the traffic. Today, almost anyone can become an affiliate including bloggers and members of different online forums. You no longer have to be a webmaster to make money off affiliate programs.

It is important with affiliate programs to make sure that it is a letigitimate opportunity and you are not getting taken advantage of. Sometimes affiliates just end up being very underpaid sales reps for the company they are in affiliation with. Make sure you will be compensated sufficiently for your efforts.