Whether you decide to jump on the Internet Marketing bandwagon to make money online or not, it is of utmost importance to know this. What I am referring to is the process of how to make money online through affiliate marketing.

For those who do not know what is affiliate marketing, here is a simple explanation. Affiliate Marketing is a way of making money online whereby you earn commission for helping a business by promoting their product, service or site which results in a sale.

The picture above shows a simple representation of the process of making money online through affiliate marketing.

Here is how the whole process works:

1. Select a product/service to sell from an Affiliate Network (e.g. Clickbank, Offervault, etc.)

2. Create a Squeeze Page and direct traffic to it

3. For those who signed up, thank them using the Thank You Page

4. After they confirm the sign up, you will be able taken to the Download Page to download the FREE gift

5. Follow up with emails to market your product/service.

Step 1 is easy to understand and do. Just go to Clickbank and choose a product/service that you are interested to sell.

Step 2 mentioned creating a Squeeze Page and directing traffic to it. What is a Squeeze Page? WealthyAffiliate is a good example of an excellent Squeeze Page. This is the web page that you need to create for the product/service that you are selling. The purpose of this Squeeze Page is to build a list of subscribers. Why would anyone be willing to subscribe? Of course we need to give something of value in order to get them to subscribe. In this case, Wealthy Affiliate offers an Internet Wealth Crash Course to entice subscribers. However, it could also be a FREE report/eBook/software.

Step 3: After you enter your name and email address and click "Sign Up" button, you will be brought to the Thank You web page. As the name implies, it will thank you for signing up. In addition, this page will instruct you to check your email inbox for a Confirmation Email. This email contains an URL link for you to confirm your sign up. Why is this necessary? This is to prevent other people from signing up on your behalf without your consent and to ensure that it is really you who wants to subscribe.

Step 4: After you click this confirmation link, you will be taken to the Download Page. Here is where you can download the FREE report/eBook/software that was promised earlier.

Step 5: After you download the FREE gift, you will continue to receive emails that provide high value on a regular basis. It is through these high value emails, that the seller builds trust and authority. It is also through these emails that the product/service is marketed to your subscribers.

I hope this gives you a general idea of how an affiliate makes money online. Though the steps are simple to understand, it is not easy. For example, driving traffic to your Squeeze Page is a challenge for newbies because your website could be lying in one of the tens of million results of Google. In this case, how can anyone know of your website? This is a different subject matter altogether and I will write about it and share my experience later.