In today's internet economy it is very easy to make money using an Affiliate Marketing Program.  Businesses of all sizes, types and income levels can be found that have an affiliate program for those interested in selling their products on ecommerce websites, through emails and blogs or by banner and ad placement.  All you need is a website, a product or store theme and a few bookmarks and you can make money with an Affiliate Marketing Program.

An Affiliate Marketing Program is a sales agreement between a company such as Sears, Target, Starbucks Coffee or Alaska Airlines and a website owner, blogger or email marketer looking to earn some income via their readers, traffic and regular visitors.  This type of program is beneficial to both the large company and the website owner.  The retail company receives ad placement upon the website owner's site, while the website owner receives a commission anywhere from 1-75% of the sales made via their links.

A website owner can gain access to a popular Affiliate Marketing Program in several ways.  A company or products online website will often provide links to their affiliate programs if available.  Sometimes these links are found at the very bottom of the site or on the about, contact or partners pages.  Another way to locate an interesting Affiliate Marketing Program is to check affiliate message boards, newsletters and blogs to see what companies have recently made themselves available to this form of sales.  Sometimes you can find special invitations, hints and commission rates by searching these resources.

The quickest way to join an Affiliate Marketing Program is to join communities such as ClickBank, Google's Connect Commerce or LinkShare.  These massive networks allow companies to easily create banner, image, video and text advertisements, program rules and much more.  They also allow for easy and automated tracking of sales and the referral links they are connected too.  Many large, well known and high sales companies have their Affiliate Marketing Program through one of these large communities.  This gives small, greenhorn online retail businesses a chance to sell name brand products that have a high sales rate.

With a little bit of time, a small website, some web traffic, a retail theme and partnerships with several large Affiliate Marketing Program communities, a small online business website can generate a surprising income.  There are many different websites that are making the best of this income creator and it is very easy to get started.  Joining into a partnership with well-known companies through their Affiliate Marketing Program can be very profitable and beneficial to both parties.