WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING?
Affiliate marketing is a way of making money online by promoting the products of another company for a commission on each sale you generate.
People who promote products in this manner are called "affiliates", or sometimes "partners" or "associates". Most affiliates promote products through their websites or email lists, but you're not restricted to these methods: Basically, anywhere you can put a website address or a hyperlink can be turned into a promotional vehicle -- the only limit is your imagination.
Affiliate marketing isn't a pyramid-selling scheme, and it's not a tool for scammers and spammers. Affiliates are regular people looking to earn some extra cash from their websites, or individuals wanting a serious work-at-home business that they can perform from anywhere in the world, with serious earning potential.
When we say "affiliate marketing" we're actually talking about a bunch of things:
Finding good products to promote
Building websites
Conducting market research
Search engine optimization (getting your website ranking well in the search engines)
Creative ways to promote your products
Social networking and "web 2.0" strategies
Email marketing
Pay-per-click marketing
Creating or sourcing content for your website or newsletter
Getting motivated, staying motivated, and avoiding potential mishaps
Earning money by displaying ads on your site (eg, Google AdSense)
... And there's quite a bit more.