This is the gist or the premise behind an affiliate marketer:

(you can also get great insight information on this topic from the Uber Camp 2.0 which introduces affiliate marketing and leveraging ppc and landing pages)

1. As an affiliate marketer when you agree to sign up to promote someone’s products and services you are assigned a special code (url that is unique to you).

2. You can then strategically and/or prominently place on your website, in your ezine or on your blog etc.  

3. Whenever a reader aka ‘an interested or prospective customer’ clicks on the special link, it takes them to a page that presents the special offer.  Note: The website where the special offer is based can tell by the referring url that your customer clicked that the lead came from your website, blog, ezine etc. 

4. So once the customer arrives to the page where the special offer is presented and does whatever the referring request was i.e.: purchase a product, sign up on a list or for a trial offer then you will get paid a commission (as determined by the product or service offeror in advance). You don’t handle inventory, customer service, shipping product or none of that.

5. Once the sale is closed or the required action is done you are given a commission which gets paid via direct deposit or snailed mailed to you in the form a paper check.

Affiliate marketing is how a number of online marketers get their start and make the big bucks. While it sounds relatively simple- place a link on your site, get a sale, get paid and all the while you never have to handle any inventory, in fact it is a little more ‘involved’ than that. And I can certainly attest to that While it’s not overly complex to get involved with, like any thing it takes time and patience. Of course, if you are brand smacking new or even a novice who has yet to achieve success a good place to start is with a course and a person knowledgeable within the field. Usually such things cost, and it is more of an issue being a teen entrepreneur with no job and no money. And I hear  where you are coming from. So that is why I am always going above and beyond, over and under, high and low and high again to find you the best of the best. Without further adieu I would like you to give a warm welcome to Super Duper Affiliate and a teen online marketing superstar – Paul Bourque. Yes, I know it sounds like a French name, but that does not mean he is a snob . Actually he is quite the opposite. I regularly check in to read his blog “Confessions of a Super Duper Affiliate” I love his energy, his tone and the way he responds and is active & hands-on with his readers. He posts a lot of useful information, strategies and also things to watch out for. Well, he recently did a very generous thing….he launched an affiliate camp (online) so anyone can enroll. It gives a great overview on the ins and outs of affiliate marketing and introduces you a bit to PPC (pay per click) ad campaigns and some of the other terminology you need to be familiar with in the affiliate and online marketing space.  So here it is– Uber Camp 2.0 — it’s a free course and doesn’t even require an email registration. I hope that you will enjoy it and find it useful. Let me know what you think about it.