About ten years ago if someone told you that you could do business from home, without investing much and earning in thousands of dollar per week, you would not have believed it. However if you tell the same thing to someone else today, there will be no surprise on anyone's face. Affiliate marketing is here. Affiliate marketing refers to marketing the products and services of a company and getting a commission from the company depending on your performance. Affiliate marketing business can be started by anyone irregardless of age, creed, caste and sex. Hence it can be started by a housewife who would like to make maximum use of her free time during the day, or a retired professional who would like to make extra residual income or a college going student who would like to make more pocket money.

As regards to investment in affiliate marketing, you require only a computer and an internet connection. You can get started immediately as you require only basic training. The salary or commission you get is generally performance based. The more inquiries and the more sales you help acquire the more commission you can get. Today there are millions of people all around the world who are involved full time in affiliate marketing. So how can one do affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is possible by sending advertisements or newsletters to the emails addresses of prospective clients, providing links or advertisement banners where the client is directed to the company's website when he clicks on the link. Today more and more people are using forums and blogs to market the products and services of the company. A company website is the most efficient and cost effective way of marketing the company's products and services.

You normally get paid in three ways for your efforts. The first form of payment is known as pay per click where you get paid every time a client clicks on the link or the advertisement banner. The second form of payment is based on pay per lead where you get paid for getting an inquiry or a lead to the company. The last form of payment is pay per sale, where you get paid when a sale is made by the client. Also most affiliate marketing programs help you earn extra commission when you're the referrals under you help create a lead or a sale. You can also earn your income from more than one source by joining many affiliate marketing programs.