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Many people who are setting up an internet business don't have time to mess around - they want to start making money as fast as possible. Promoting affiliate programs is a great way to get started. You have no stock to hold, no customer service headaches and no suppliers to worry about.

But joining individual affiliate programs can become tedious and keeping track of them is difficult. An online affiliate network makes things easier. You just have to join one network and they will give you access to dozens if not hundreds of affiliate programs to join. Getting paid is also easier. They will put all the commissions from the various programs together and pay you with one check. In short, your life will be easier and more productive.

How to Profit From An Affiliate Network

Online affiliate networks act as a middleman between members of the network and the merchants of the affiliate programs. The merchant can be a company selling a product, or a service. Anyone interested in joining an established affiliate network should first research the type of business they want to participate in. They then need to have a live website and add advertising that will link through to the merchant's website. Every customer that you refer to the merchant's website and makes a purchase, you get paid a set commission.

Discover How It Works

Once you have built your online affiliate website, you have to keep it up to date and attract customers. This can be done by making sure your site is search engine optimised, is listed in the major search engines, and by advertising. A good idea is to build a client list and send out monthly newsletters informing them of the current specials and promotions the merchant is offering. This can be done by email newsletter so the costs are low. Link your site to others and they are likely to return the favour. The more people who know about your website and visit it, the more people that will visit your merchant's website.

Exposed - How Do I Get Paid?

Commission is paid based on the type of affiliate program you have joined. There is no industry standard as to how often or how much you paid. It is individual to each different online affiliate network available. Some networks pay a commission on every click that is made on the merchant's link that takes the potential customer to the main site. Other sites pay the affiliate a percentage of a customer's purchase. Between 5 and 25% is a typical percentage but some pay more e.g. some software sites pay out 50%.

Benefits of Joining an Affiliate Network

Affiliate programs offer you one of the cheapest ways of getting into business. A good affiliate network will make running your business easier by providing you access to a variety of merchants, and streamlining your payment and administration tasks. They will also keep you up to date with the latest promotions.

Setting up this type of business is cost-effective. The only thing you will need to pay for is the cost of your website space - and the site designer if you are not doing it yourself. That in itself is a way to save money as there are numerous online templates and programs available to help website programming challenged individuals build their own site. Compared to many business start-ups, using an online affiliate network saves you the cost of a product start-up kit, educational information, and travel concerns.