Before internet, freelance jobs like insurance, network marketing and real estate used to be the only choices available. After internet came, there was e-commerce and web design initally. Now as internet became more advanced, affiliate marketing is added to the list.

Compared to those freelance jobs, traditional marketing, e-commerce and even web design, affiliate marketing is the easiest and fastest way to make money.

If you are new to internet marketing or even internet, you probably ask what is the affiliate marketing or what the word affiliate means.

I will break down my answers into 2 simple sentences.

The word affiliate is another term for internet marketer by definition. By action, affiliate marketing means promoting online merchants for commissions.

Unless people are interested and want to know specifically how they can earn money, I will not verbally explain beyond those as I do not want to overwhelm them with too much information. Besides, information overload is one of the biggest problems most internet marketers face before even getting started.

Having said those, you probably wonder again as to how, where should you start and get paid in affiliate marketing?

My answer to the first question is you only need your PC or laptop and internet access. That is so much better than setting up an office, shop or stall which practically costs thousands of dollars even before you earn your first profit. The most you will be spending is a few hundred dollars.

As for the second question, my answer is online marketplaces like Amazon, Clickbank, Commission Junction and Paydotcom,. There are literally thousands of products being promoted by merchants and companies alike be it physical or digital like videos, software, ebooks and audio. The way I see them, these are four most popular online marketplaces with gurus, top internet marketers and affiliates.

Finally for the third question, my answer is different marketplaces have different ways of payment. Such as Amazon, Clickbank and Commission Junction will pay by checks and Paydotcom will credit your commissions into your Paypal once every 2 weeks or monthly.

Another important thing I need to highlight is that though you do not have to spend as much money as in traditional business, it does not mean you do not have to spend any money at all. Sure affiliate marketing is free to sign up as in setting up your accounts with those marketplaces but not when it comes to having your autoresponder, domain name and web hosting account.

Autoresponder is a proper channel of sending email offers to people without being accused of spamming while domain name and web hosting is for you to have your own website such as a landing page as a way of branding yourself. Even though you promote other people's products, you need consistent traffic to earn consistent income instead of earning one-time commissions every few weeks or so. Makes sense?

So brought up these answers and having been successful in internet marketing which I have been in for 2 years, I am all the more convinced that affiliate marketing is the easiest and fastest way to make money