Affiliate advertising isn’t for everyone. It requires a little bit of technical ability, and if you want to do well, a bit of money.

However it is possible to earn a fair bit of money with affiliate advertising, so if you have the patience it can be worth a try.

What is an affiliate?

An affiliate is someone who promotes the products or services of another business or “merchant”. Generally if the promotion leads directly to sales within a set time period the affiliate will be paid a set amount or a share of the sale.

For example, if you display an affiliate link for a book you like, and someone goes on to buy that book, you will be given commission. This might be for example 5% of the sale price of the book.

How to promote a merchant’s products

There are lots of different ways you can promote the merchant company. Merchants will usually have set ways you can or can’t promote their products. For example some companies will be happy for you to promote them via your website or a Google pay per click campaign, but won’t want you to promote them by email in case you send out lots of spam emails and annoy people.

How to become an affiliate

Some companies will offer their own affiliate scheme via their website, though the most common method is generally to use an affiliate company such as Commission Junction, ClickBank or E-Junkie – who host campaigns for 10,000s of different merchants.

View our list of affiliate companies