The internet has grown to such an extent that it is globally described as a gold mine where any serious person can easily make money if they know what to do. But the opposite is often the case as these people end up getting hurt as they tend to believe pretty much everything they read online.

The fear of failure had always made many people stick to their paying 9 to 5 jobs, even when those people don’t want those 9 to 5 jobs anymore. OB (Just Over Broke).

The big question here is: How can you make money on the Internet and how soon can this be?

There are several ways in which one can earn money on the Internet. Basically, these fall into two broad categories: 1) Having to sell your own goods and/or services, 2) Becoming an affiliate.

For the purposes of this article, we are concentrating on how to make money as an affiliate. This is because; you can make money online almost immediately as an affiliate. Also the logistics of starting the business is almost nil. May or may not have a website. You don’t need to have a customer service unit and you don’t need to keep an inventory of the products you sell.

But who is an affiliate? An affiliate is a person who sells other people’s products on the Internet and receives a commission for each sale they make. A business sets up an affiliate program that provides them with a unique URL that can be used to send traffic to their website. If a visitor buys something from that website, the affiliate will earn a percentage of the commission or a flat fee. Thousands of people earn huge income selling and promoting other people’s products online.

The ability to make money online without owning your own products and doing your own customer service has helped a lot of people tremendously. If you are tired of being bankrupt, doing the 9 to 5 job, disabled, retired, stay at home mom, or any other desire to be able to work from anywhere, then affiliate marketing can provide a great source of income. Talk about financial freedom and time freedom. He has them all.

Getting Started – As an affiliate, you need to choose the products you want to promote wisely. If you are new to the game, it is better to choose those low-priced products with high commission rates. My recommendation is to have products that are priced under $100 with a commission outlay of no less than 50%. Again, once you’ve selected your products, one of the first things you need to do to start making money online is to build a listing. It has always been said that the money is in the list. With a large list, you are sure to be a successful affiliate. However, people will teach you how to build a web page and drive traffic to your site, but you won’t get a ready-made listing. You have to build one. The question here is how someone who is new to internet business builds their list. This brings us to the second point.

Set Up a Squeeze Page – To start building your list right away, you’ll need to set up a Squeeze Page. This is where you send your customers looking for your information and products, to enter their names and email addresses to get that information. You build your list this way. However, your landing page should have these four basic needs:

1) An attention-grabbing headline

2) A benefit list of why someone should give you their name and email address

3) A call to action that tells your prospects what to do and why they should do it.

4) An offer: what are you giving them in exchange for their names and email addresses?

Writing and Submitting Articles: In marketing your products, writing articles is very effective. This is the most effective way to generate free traffic to your site. You write articles that relate to the particular niche in which you are involved. By the time people read your articles consistently, you will become an authority in those niches and when you recommend any product to them, they are more likely to buy from you. You can always have Ghost writers write articles for you. So this shouldn’t worry you if you can’t do it. Also, you should have a very interesting resource box that shows your prospects how to locate your website and invariably buy your products. Therefore, you can submit your articles to article directories to help drive traffic to your site.

Promotion of your products through paid advertising: This is the best way to promote your business, except for the cost. However, in pay-per-click advertising on search engines like google, overture, yahoo, etc., you only pay when prospects click your ads requesting their information. But overall, if this is done right, this is the best and fastest way to achieve your goal of making money online.

Although these tools are not exhaustive in helping you make money online, they will nevertheless propel you to make money online in any of your chosen niches. However, the biggest obstacle standing in your way of making money online is yourself. Set goals and stick to those goals. You may not become a super affiliate overnight, but with experience and dedication you will be well on your way to earning a reasonable income online working from the comfort of your own home.