The key behind making money with affiliate programs is to attract traffic to your site and to convert this traffic into sales. While it may seem simple when viewed this way, being an affiliate is not such an easy task. There is definitely a lot of work involved behind it all.

However, the lure of making money this way attracts more and more people everyday. And it is a fact that many people even live very well from the revenue brought in through affiliate programs.

So how exactly can you make money with affiliate programs?

There are 3 ways, actually payment options to affiliates:

* Pay per impression (CPM)
* Pay per click (PPC)
* Pay per sale/lead

Each of these bring in revenue, and are generally thought to be an either/or choice, as in, you can only choose one of the payment options.

Pay per impression (CPM)

CPM can be a very profitable avenue for a site that has a lot of traffic. CPM refers to cost per thousand actually. How did the change from pay per impression happen to cost per thousand? Simply because the affiliate under this scheme is paid for every 'impression' of a banner on his site. Payment is made by thousands (M being the Latin numeral of thousand), CPM translates thus to cost per thousand.

This scheme is very simple and basic. An affiliate simply has to 'show' a banner on his site, and gets paid for every thousand banners viewed. While it can appear as a simple way of earning money, CPM is not exactly 'the' get-rich-quick avenue of affiliates. Since you are paid by banners viewed, it is logical then to imagine that the more views, the more money earned. How to get more views though? That's the key question.

Pay per click (PPC)

In this scheme, you get paid for every click to the banner you are displaying. PPC definitely pays more than CPM, as it is a more hazardous gamble on whether or not someone will actually click the banner after seeing it.

A site with high traffic and a site that also encourages clicking will fare much better in this type of scheme. Providing related content and pre-selling the affiliate's products on the site can lead to more clicks. Carefully targeting your audience is also a good way of getting the best out of your affiliate links.

Pay per sale/lead

This is the most popular way to earn money as an affiliate and the way that I have made most of my money as well. In this situation, the affiliate earns a share or a commission on the sale of every product he directs a client to.

This form of pay for performance is also the one that pays best. What happens is you get visitors to your site or blog, once there you presell your affiliate product or service in which when they click on the link that you provide them, they are then taken to the affiliate products website. If they buy the product, you earn the commission.

The art of Pre-Selling a product is a great way to sell an affiliate product. Unbiased product reviews are another very popular way to sell products.

Overall, it can be said that it is easy to earn money by being an affiliate... however, there is an art to it. With that said, anyone can do it. I have worked with lots of different affiliate programs and to be honest, when I first got started in the affiliate marketing business I didn't know anything.

That just tells me that with the right help, anyone can learn how to build a site, learn the art of pre-selling, and every aspect of this business and make good money with affiliate programs...