Many products and companies have affiliate programs. Even if they don’t manage their own, there’s a chance that they run one through a third-party affiliate management program like Commission Junction or LinkShare.

Most of the third-party affiliate management programs run similarly. As a blogger you use your own affiliate URL to refer traffic, and a cookie is placed on the visitor’s computer. The good thing is, that cookie might expire anywhere from 30 to 90 days from now. If the visitor makes a purchase before the cookie expires, you still receive a portion of the sale. Commission ratio can range from 5 percent to 75 percent, depending on the product.

The Biggest Advantage of Affiliate Programs

• You can determine  what to show to your readers, whereas the Adsense show ads based on Google’s analysis of your page. You can not control the ads in Adsense.
• You can provide valuable content to your readers even in your affiliate referrals, and can build campaigns around affiliate products.
• Your readers benefit from your knowledge and experience with a product, and you earn a commission on a sale. A typical win-win for both sides.
• Your affiliate revenues should increase as your traffic increases. You don’t need to have high traffic to make  affiliate sales, because your recommendations are part of your content.

In the next part, I will talk about how to maximizing affiliate sales. Stay tuned for more make money with blogging tips.