The Internet is a marketplace, and like any marketplace it holds lots of money just waiting to be made, if only you know how. If I were to recommend to a novice the quickest, simplest, and most effective way to make easy money online, it would be this: affiliate marketing.

Simply put, affiliate marketing is a practice in which you (the affiliate) promotes products and services on behalf of someone else (the merchant.) You create a free account with the merchant and receive a "referral link" to their website, with your affiliate ID embedded into it, (ie, merchantsite.com/aff=1234) through which you can promote their products. If someone clicks your link and goes on to buy the merchant's product, you get a commission on it -- anywhere from 5 -- 75%! This is ideal for beginners, because it requires nothing on your part, no product, no website, and no sales pitch. The merchant's website takes care of everything; all you have to do is help interested shoppers find it via your referral link.

Affiliate marketing has been around for years, and is used by thousands of people to make easy money online -- myself included. Many of the sign up pages for affiliate programs show testimonials from people who use that program to bring in thousands each month -- and once you can do that with one program, you can repeat the process with as many others as you want. To start out, you can easily promote your referral link on things like free blogs, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, forum signatures, and in a score of other places. Another easy alternative is to create a free page on a website like HubPages.com or Squidoo.com and write a short article about whatever it is you're promoting. This takes little time and the payouts can be considerable.

Most major websites that you browse on a daily basis have an affiliate program, places like eBay, Amazon, GoDaddy, Match.com and Dell.com -- just about any website that has something to sell. A link to the affiliate page is usually found on the bottom of the website, which brings you to a page with information on commission and how to sign up. It's easy to keep your eyes out for these opportunities as you go about your daily surfing. Sign up for the ones that interest you the most, and get started with affiliate marketing today!