An affiliate program is a relationship with an on-line merchant where the affiliate earns a commission for referring potential customers to the merchant's site, which subsequently results in a sale.
Over recent years the number of Affiliate marketing programs has increased dramatically. This is due to several reasons. Firstly an increase in the number of people seeking a work-from-home, low start-up cost business. Secondly the attraction to the merchants of having an army of salespeople selling their products has meant that more and more merchants are offering such schemes. Thirdly the increase is partly due to the ease with which it is now possible for most people to have a web presence. Some affiliate marketing schemes even provide completed web pages that only require simple personalization and the site can be up and running almost immediately. Sadly, another factor having its influence is the false impression created by some marketers that the Internet provides the means to get rich quickly and easily with minimum of effort. Some skilled affiliate marketers earn thousands of dollars a month. Some of the reasons why you should consider such a scheme are
No experience required
No stock to purchase
Low set-up cost
No premises to rent or buy
Can be operated from home
No sales experience needed
No goods to ship
Potentially good income
Addressing a world marketplace
Operates 24x7

So what factors do you need to take into account if you are just starting out as a newbie affiliate?

What commission does the affiliate scheme pay?
Commission rates vary considerably depending upon the type of product chosen. These can range from, say, 5% on a range of garden products to 50% and over on ranges of ebooks. Initially you should consider the high paying rates usually to be found on books and software.

How frequently are the commissions paid?
The frequency of commission payment varies from company to company. Determine whether your selected affiliate schemes pay weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly. Some companies require a minimum accumulated amount of commission before making a payment.

What form of tracking cookies does the company operate?
Tracking cookies, which have a set like, are used by the marketing company so that they can trace a customer back to you as an affiliate. Often purchases are not impulse buys, consequently the longer the life of the cookie, the greater chance you have of earning commission. The life of a cookie can range from several days to several years.

Does the affiliate scheme cater for second purchases and beyond?
Some schemes pay commission only on the product that you are promoting. Better schemes credit you with commission on any future products that the customer you introduced subsequently makes. If you can, therefore, opt for this latter group, and check that this applies if the customer, in future goes directly to the merchants site.

What marketing materials are available on the merchant's site?
As nearly all affiliate programs are free to join you can easily gain access to the resource pages of your intended merchants. Examine the quality of the material. Do they provide free gifts for you to offer? Do they offer any means of branding ebooks so that you can stamp you affiliate identity on them?

Do they respond to emails?
A future relationship between you as an affiliate, your customer and a merchant of your choice, can be partly dependant upon the ease with which you, can communicate. Send the merchant an email with a question about their affiliate scheme and look at how you are treated. Discount the affiliate if there is a delayed reply, or worse still, no reply at all.

How popular is the merchant's website?
Alexa at www.alexa.com carries out a continuous process of site ranking. And will tell you how your merchant's site ranks in popularity against all of the other sites on the web. Ranking somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000 might be considered ideal. A word of caution here, however. If the ranking is below 100,000 there may already be too many affiliates associated with that merchant. If the ranking is greater than 500,000 it could just be that you have come across a new product where you have chance to make money as one of the first affiliates. Always examine the product in detail, and do a Google search to find any adverse postings. Join the forum at www.warriorforum.com and post a topic asking the members if they have any experience of the merchant. Again a word of caution. Be aware that any glowing report may be coming from an existing affiliate.

And so I found this info based on reseaching business/employment types:

Did you know that 50% of the population have their annual incomes between $10-35 000, while today's average 50 year old has only $2 300 saved towards their retirement? Yet the internet is full of thousands of home based business opportunities that have the potential to improve monthly income earnings for a lot of people. The reality for those who have ventured into internet business is that only 2% of them succeed, the rest providing the fuel for success to the well established internet gurus!

The 98% failure rate for opportunity seekers has been up to now a rule...that is until the successful launch of completely automated home-based hybridized success systems. The rule of thumb in internet business is that the experienced marketer dumps products on the unsuspecting newbie who buys products with the hope to resell. The need to setup, market and close a sale is insurmountable. The newbie is led to buy often expensive marketing products for which he/she has no skill nor the time to learn how to operate. He/she may be required to send emails, to use search engines, banners and the like to promote his product, all which come at a considerable cost.

The recent move away from the traditional internet marketing schemes to 100% hands-free automated home-based business systems means internet business will never be the same. These success systems literally afford marketers to set up and leave the system to do everything. These new arrivals promise to do all the prospecting, marketing, emailing, customer service, and closing the sales for you while all you need to do is call the operators once in a while to say hi! This new trend in internet marketing is truly mind boggling! Needless to say internet Guru's are rushing to cash on these effortless money making machines well ahead of online opportunity seekers who are often skeptical and often jump onto the band wagon when the guru has had his portion!

But to be fair to the opportunity seeker, exploitation by the experienced marketer means over time the seeker develops a thick skin and becomes impervious to all hype without results that often characterize the internet guru's sales' pitch.

For the very first time in internet's history however, the newbie has been put at par with the experienced marketer by new technology that drives these new Mighty Behemoths! Now the newbie is no longer needed to buy leads and to engage in expensive bulk emailing. No longer are they required to do search engine submissions, website optimization, MLM, or cold calling!

These new hybrid of automated home based business systems are simply 21st century business automation gone mad! Not surprisingly, with the majority having been launched within the last 1-3 years, it is rightly predicted that these Mighty Behemoths are going to produce their first 6 figure income earners in 2006. What is even more nauseating is the thought that these income earners are now making 5 figure incomes without having to lift a finger! This observation is what makes them way too good to be true, and much more offensive, an object of suspicion to the newbie seeker!

The new breed of 100% automated home based businesses are truly a remarkable achievement thanks to their developers. These systems simply use the power of the internet to propagate across the net to whoso will! You see when you and I search the web we use keywords to look for whatever at all we are about. These new Mighty Behemoths somewhat mysteriously hook themselves to search engines (like Yahoo, MSN or Google) waiting patiently for people across the internet to start typing into their address bars. This is where these amazing hybridized internet driven technology-machines come in. They quickly direct you to their clients' business opportunity while simultaneously presenting themselves to you.

Not only does this new technology do all the prospecting and advertising for you, it then sorts out your prospects and sell the product for you while all you need to do is check your bank. It is like a scene from a science fiction movie! Only two years ago this sort of automated marketing, sorting and closing would have been completely inconceivable.

Website traffic is the biggest impediment to online success. If website traffic can be overcome then any online marketing and prospecting should pay huge dividends to any Jack and Jill out there. What we now see in the new trend of traffic software development is a fairer effective and legal traffic generating system. The implication on their recent initial success on possibly taking over and completely changing website traffic generation cannot be over emphasized.

One of the most recent of these new arrivals, the MegaWealthy system is truly in a league of its own! The MegaWealthy system is a real business on its own, as well as being a powerful traffic-generating tool for one's product. It accomplishes both functions simultaneously. It makes you an effortless side income($3000-9000 per month) while it sells your product making sure you have no option but to succeed, all this supposedly hands free! For the opportunity seeker these mighty Behemoths are a honey of a deal, a heaven sent cash generating venture that guarantees a sale everytime.

Twenty first century business online marketing at this level of automation objectively eliminates all reasons why online businesses fail. Website traffic is no longer a problem. Marketing and prospecting are a thing of the past. Cold calling is no longer in the cards and closing a sale – a good riddance!. It is a fascinating set-and-forget revolutionary work of genius that truly beats the competition right on your marks!

While we wait with bated hands the successful takeover of internet marketing at all levels by these Mighty Behemoths in the coming 3-5 years, those left behind in the scramble for these real pearls of great price will be forced to dig much deeper to finance their online business.

The future for online marketing looks much brighter, but the challenge goes on..

Affiliate marketing has long promised the ideal of bringing home lots of cash without having to actually put in that much effort. But is this the truth?

When you become an affiliate for a product or service all you have to do is paste a link to their site and watch the commission from orders gained through your site come flooding in, right? Well, not quite. It's vital to understand that affiliate marketing is like any other form of marketing - there are no shortcuts and your site still needs to be marketed in the usual ways or you will see zero rewards.

Successful affiliates in any affiliate program simply don't sit there and wait for money to come. Why? Because there is no money in simply sitting and waiting. If you really want to get hold of large affiliate checks then you have to be constantly thinking of ways to make your visitors click on those affiliate links.

Here are a few brief guidelines that should get you off on the right track...

* Become an expert in your chosen field or affiliate product.

You can promote your merchant's product better if you know a lot of things about it. To become an expert, the best thing you can do is purchase your merchant's product yourself. Use the product inside out. That way you will get to know all the pros and cons of the product and this may enable you to write a testimonial on your site! Remember sometimes revealing the flaws (as long as they are minor) as well as the good points can make a review seem more believable and encourage your visitors to click on that link!

* Write your own affiliate ads.

Many vendors won't mind if you get a little "creative" in your promotion of their products and this can be a great way to make your ads stand out from all the other people who are promoting the same product.

* Participate in chat rooms, discussion boards, and forums related to your product.

If you used to ignore them before, then it is time for you to start focusing your attention on them. You can start your own chat room or join an existing chat room related to your product. It's a good idea not to promote your product straight away. Instead, build trust with your forum colleagues by giving out advice, then, over time, mention your affiliate product. Otherwise you just look like a spammer, not a good thing!

* Create a free ezine or newsletter.

Ezines and newsletters are periodical publications whose aim is to inform a group of people about a certain subject. In your ezines and newsletters, you don't always have to promote your merchant's product for this may greatly annoy your subscribers.

Rather, find a way to insert your affiliate ads and links on some portions of the letter. Also, don't forget to promote your ezine or newsletter on your website.

These are but a few guidelines on how you can increase your affiliate sales and continually grow your affiliate checks.

What's important is that you are able to find a way to: attract more traffic to your site, induce your visitors to click on the ads on your site, and be able to promote your merchant's products even outside the boundary of your website. If you can do this, there's no reason for you to fail in affiliate marketing.

Seeing such a brazen approach towards affiliate marketing, it lead me down a the following path.....

For most people, starting a Home Business is a way to realise their financial dreams. With the Home Business, the entrepreneur hopes to be finally free from the routine and pains of having a job.

Like any other business, there will always be a period of time (normally in the beginning) where you will need to give more time and effort than expected to build the fundamentals of the business. As a business startup, you will be faced with risks. There is no way to eliminate all the risks associated with starting a business. However, you can improve your chances of success by good planning, preparation and guidance.

These are the factors that you must consider and prepare yourself before starting your own Home Business.

1. Do you consider yourself a Self-Starter?

When you are an employee, your boss is the one to worry about these things. You will need to seriously worry only if the salary does not come in at the end of the month. A Home Business Owner is fully accountable for the success or failure of the business.

A Home Business owner needs to create products and services, develop marketing plans, implement the plans, take orders, deliver the products and services, manage time - the list is endless.

2. Do you get along well with people with different working style and personalities?

As a Home Business entrepreneur, people management is a fundamental skill. You will need to develop good working relationship with a large variety of people namely your customers, suppliers, bankers, lawyers, accountants etc. Are you able to control your temper and nerves when faced with a highly demanding customer, an unreliable supplier or unreasonable banker all for the good of your business?

3. Are you good at making decisions? in a timely manner?

As a Home Business owner, you will need to make decisions constantly, under pressure, independently in a timely manner. You will need to account for all the factors and information in hand before deciding on matters that may affect your business.

4. Do you have the mental and physical stamina to start and maintain a business?

Running a Home Business is a marathon and not a sprint. Starting and developing a successful Home Business requires stamina both mentally and physically. Though it is exciting, challenging and sometimes fun, there is a lot of work involved and even more ups and downs.

5. Plan and Organize.

According to research, many business failures can be avoided through better planning, good organization, good counselling and guidance.

6. As the owner behind the wheels, is your drive strong enough to propel the Home Business forward?

As the Home Business owner, you must continously motivate yourself when running the business.

Some Home Business owners often experience burnout by having to carry the burden of the business on their shoulders. Motivation can make a business succeed and help survive the slowdowns and periods of burnout. It is a good idea to form alliance to manage the workloads of the Home Business. You may join support groups to keep yourself continuously motivated.

7. Balancing Home Business and Family.

The truth in any business is that the first few years of starting up can be hard on family life. The strain of an unsupportive family can make it difficult to meet the demands of starting a business. There may also be financial difficulties until the business becomes profitable.

A successful and profitable Home Business is a dream for many people. In order to make that dream into a reality, a certain amount of sacrifice together with careful planning, guidance and perseverance is needed. There is no doubt that you will face a downturn once in a while but all failures are lesson learnt. If there are no failures, there are no success.

"Each business failure showed me what I did not know and what I needed to learn. . . and that learning experience led to the next success." - Robert Kiyosaki

At the beginning of any journey, the route ahead can often seem daunting with many pitfalls. This one's no different! I stumbled across someone with a similar aim financially, i.e. to have independence but with a very unique (and some would say odd) way of going about it. The "Rich Jerk" as he brands himself offers a very unique but slightly arrogant view on how to set up an income stream from affiliate marketing. His eBook is available on the web and covers the following topics:

Chapter 1:Creating an Affiliate website that sells like crazy
Chapter 2: Unique Search Engine PPC strategies - that kill your competition
Chapter 3: Search Engine Optimization strategies
Chapter 4: Selling your own informational product
Chapter 5: Buying wholesale and selling on e-bay
Chapter 6: Websites you can make profitable right now
Chapter 7: Other online ventures to consider
Chapter 8: Supplemental info for beginners
Chapter 9: Quality products/services I recommend

The book is an excellent resource for the less experienced but does have some padding out as you might expect! It has a reputation as one of the best internet marketing ebooks about and i'm not going to disagree. To see for yourself use the link to the right!

It occurred to me.....
last week as i was trying to concentrate on something much more mundane that I always find that I need a little more cash in life than i have available. Odd you might think, but i'm sure others have thought similar things. If people didn't have a need for a little more cash than they had, why are credit firms so successful?? Anyway, this rambling in my mind carried on until I decided to try to find out what opportunities are out there for people that have the drive to work multiple careers and generate multiple income streams. With today's global marketplace allowing people to share their views and products with a truly global audience, there must be so many opportunities in the currently changing e-world that are currently unfulfilled. This lead me slowly to discover what i consider my first opportunity for parallel income streams which i will describe below. The focus of this blog might change as it matures but this is the starting point that I am using in my quest.

You might be wondering, why call this blog, "The Young Entrepreneur"? I am currently finishing off my education at a Top-10 British University and although I intend to graduate with a decent Engineering degree and feel I have employment potential, I think that having multiple income streams and hence being "entrepreneurial" with your approach to income and investments is the safest, most modern approach towards wealth generation. It is my intention to be in a position to get a £20-30k graduate job on completion of my degree but I am almost challenging myself to see how much cash i can generate on the side adding to my main income stream.

The best way to explain my thoughts is probably just to jump in at the deep end and start the quest towards financial independence!