One of the popular ways to make extra money online is affiliate marketing. Affiliate programs also known as referral programs are normally commission based sales.  You’ll recommend a site or another online product to your visitors and then pick up a percentage of any sale that those  visitors make.  You’ll benefit from the commission and the merchant benefits from the sales.

If you already have a website set up, you can run an affiliate program from it, or you can simply build a site to promote a particular product or service.  As long as it brings in more cash than it takes to build or run it, you’ll be fine. The benefit of an affiliate program will give you another way to make extra  money online from visitor of your site.  Instead of selling them a product, you simply send them to a partner then take a cut of the profits.

Like any marketing program, you’ll need to be careful when you select an affiliate program.  It may seem tempting to go for programs with the highest commissions, but those programs won’t pay you anything if your visitors don’t buy them.

Below, you’ll find some tips to help you select an affiliate program that’s right for you:

1. Recommend a product only if you’re a sure that it benefits the buyer. If you recommend high valuable products, your site will be the first adress to check the next time your former visitors are looking for other products or opportunities.
2. Do not accept any less than 25% with commission.  You can find many programs with great payment structures and high percentages of pay in just about any field.
3. Look for statistic pages that list the number of click throughs, sales, and earnings so you’ll be able to see how you are doing.
4. Always look for programs that offer a wide variety of tools to put on your web site,  including banners, text links, and of course graphics.
5. Find out how often you’ll be paid and be sure that the payment schedule meets with your own expectations.  Some programs will pay monthly, while others will pay quarterly.
6. Be sure that top level support is  included.  If they can’t answer your questions in a quick and timely manner, you don’t want to work with them.

If you are just starting out, use always common sense and do not rush into anything. Once you learn what you are doing become more familiar with how things work, you’ll be well on your way to make extra money online. It may be a hard work at the beginning, however you’ll be glad you did.

Today I’d like to tell you about a great new competition that will:

1) Help you get lots of free targeted website traffic to your website
2) Keep you motivated for the rest of the Winter
3) Give you a chance of winning prizes worth over $1500 (including cash!)

It’s easy to get demotivated from time to time when you are running a home business, especially in the dark dreary months of winter! That’s why the Affiliate Power Group have organized this competition.

To enter the competition all you need to do is join the Affiliate Power Group before Monday 24th January and follow the instructions to register.

Join Affiliate Power Group Now

Each week you’ll receive a step by step challenge designed to get more visitors to your website. The challenges are designed to get more traffic to your website and they come with full instructions that are suitable for newbies. You’ll receive points for every challenge you complete and at the end of the four weeks the people with the most points will win:

1st Prize: Value $631.95

• $100 Cash
• 3 month free membership of the APG (worth $109.95)
• Web Page Overhaul from Ken Troyer – Ken will critique a web page of your choice and make the changes for you to improve the look and sales copy (worth $200)
• A done for you squeeze page with a 52 week follow up series in a choice of one of at least 3 niches, including affiliate marketing (worth $97)
• 250 Backlinks (worth $75)
• Your name and a (do follow) link to your website on the Affiliate Power Group Login page listed as the winner of the APG Winter Challenge 2011. This will stay in place until the next competition, in approximately 3 months time (Value $50)

2nd Prize: Value $364.95

• $50 Cash
• 1 month free membership of APG (worth $39.95)
• 1 hour coaching call on Skype from Cynthia Minnaar on the topic of Article Marketing and/or Backlink Building (value $100)
• 250 Backlinks (worth $75)
• Any service from WebsiteUpdateServices.com (worth $50)
• Your name and a (do follow) link to your website on the Affiliate Power Group Login page listed as coming 2nd place in the APG Winter Challenge 2011. This will stay in place until the next competition, in approximately 3 months time (Value $50)

3rd Prize: Value $247

• $25 Cash
• 250 Backlinks (worth $75)
• Any service from WebsiteUpdateServices.com (worth $50)
• Free copy of Master Affiliate Blueprint or 3 Steps to Search Engine Success EBooks (worth up to $47)
• Your name and a (do follow) link to your website on the Affiliate Power Group Login page listed as coming 3rd place in the APG Winter Challenge 2011. This will stay in place until the next competition, in approximately 3 months time (Value $50)

4th Prize: Value $172

• 250 Backlinks (worth $75)
• Your name and a (do follow) link to your website on the Affiliate Power Group Login page listed as coming 4th place in the APG Winter Challenge 2011. This will stay in place until the next competition, in approximately 3 months time (Value $50)
• Free copy of Master Affiliate Blueprint or 3 Steps to Search Engine Success EBooks (worth up to $47)

5th Prize: Value $97

• Your name and a (do follow) link to your website on the Affiliate Power Group Login page listed as coming 5th place in the APG Winter Challenge 2011. This will stay in place until the next competition, in approximately 3 months time (Value $50)
• Free copy of Master Affiliate Blueprint or 3 Steps to Search Engine Success EBooks (worth up to $47)

Even if you don’t win a prize, you will reap the rewards of targeted free traffic for many weeks and months to come!

The first step now is to:

Join the Affiliate Power Group and then register for the Challenge.

Good Luck