Affiliate marketing is probably one of the cheapest and quickest ways to start making money online as you don’t have to create any products yourself. Affiliate marketing works as well as it does because it is mutually beneficial to the merchant and the affiliate marketer. You simply join a free affiliate program that interests you, link up the seller with a buyer, and you take a commission on the sale referred by you.

Affiliate marketing is a hot topic on the Internet these days and offers huge opportunities. Sean Michael Kerner, in an article in Click Z News quoting an eBay spokeman, states "According to eBay their largest affiliate earned over $1.3 million dollars in January commission, the largest amount yet in their affiliate program's history. Their top 25 affiliates averaged over $100,000 per month each and the top 100 affiliates earn almost $25,000 each per month."

The benefits of affiliate marketing and affiliate programs are many and evident and shows that affiliate marketing has the potential to be a powerful means of online income generation. Your income from affiliate marketing might be low at first, but it will increase with time and dedication as your knowledge about the business increases.

• Cost Effective: Marketing on the Internet is cheap and you don’t have to create a product or service yourself. You can make quite a good living from your home selling other people’s products. You don’t need a physical business location or hire employees either.
• No Fees: You don’t need to pay anything to join affiliate programs. They're free!
  
• Low Risk: The risk factor in affiliate marketing is so small that it has become one of the major attractions for many Home-Based Business entrepreneurs. You can sign up for free, give it a try and if you decide it's not for you, you simply stop.
  
• No Experience Necessary: The best affiliate programs make it very easy for their affiliates to make money online. They provide everything their affiliates need to get started quickly, including an affiliate control panel, instructions, proven headlines, banners and text ads. You can simply cut and paste the links.
  
• No Need for Inventory: You don’t need to worry about the stocking, packing or shipment because you're selling products produced by other companies.
• Huge Global Market: Internet marketing gives you the opportunity to reach people all over the world easily. According to Internet World Stats, the world-wide Internet population for 2012 was 2.4 billion and that number will continue to grow.
• No Customer Support: The advantage here is that there is no direct dealing with the customers. The seller handles that for you.
• Passive Income: A regular job gives you a fixed income as long as you continue to work. Affiliate marketing can create a steady flow of income even when you are not in front of your computer. Your business never sleeps, it works right around the clock 24/7 making you money.
• Work from Home: If you make enough money then you don’t have to worry getting to work at the same time every day or getting stuck in traffic. You can work in the comfort of your own home. 
• Two-Tier Affiliate Programs: An attractive feature of certain affiliate programs is the two-tier system, whereas affiliates can sign up sub-affiliates below them. When the sub-affiliate earns a commission, the affiliate above them earns a commission as well.
  

When someone clicks on one of your links, a small piece of code called a “cookie” is placed on their computer containing your affiliate ID and they are sent to the sellers website. If that visitor makes a purchase (even weeks or months later), the cookie tells the seller that you referred them and you earn a commission for the sale! With some affiliate program cookies lasting 365 days, this can be a great way to accumulate commissions quickly.

Getting started as an affiliate marketer can be as simple as searching and finding products and services that you are interested in or have used yourself and checking if they have an affiliate program that offers a reasonable commission.

• Find the Best Affiliate Programs: The best affiliate programs will make it very easy for their affiliates to make money online by providing everything their affiliates need to get started quickly, including an affiliate control panel to easily track their clicks and sales, instructions, hints and tips, proven headlines, banners and text ads. You can simply cut and paste the links.
• Generate Traffic: Once you decide what product or service you’re going to promote, you need to figure out how you will generate traffic. You can pay for traffic or attract traffic naturally from social media sites, search engines and other websites. Many affiliate start a website or create landing pages related to the product or service, integrate their affiliate links and drive traffic to that site. You can create websites easily and for free with Weeby and Yola. Having a website dedicated to your affiliate marketing efforts is a plus, but these days a website is not an absolute requirement. There is an infinite number websites out there where you can post your affiliate links without one.
• Try Our Affiliate Program: Whichever way you decide to go, you may want to check out our affiliate program. Our affiliates can join our Big Hook Hosting Affiliate Program for free and immediately start earning cash (up to an amazing 40%) for each sale they send our way. We also provide our affiliates with all the tools they need to make it easy! After signing up, our affiliates receive an affiliate control panel and a start-up kit full of instructions, hints and tips, banners ads, proven headlines, and special links that you can post for free on your website, Facebook, Craigslist and hundreds of other sites. We even take it a step further and provide a second tier. If any of your referrals sign up for our affiliate program and start referring people, you will earn an additional 5% from their sales! After becoming a Super Affiliate (over 10 sales) – 10%!
  

Big Hook Hosting is happy to announce the launch of their new affiliate marketing program.

Big Hook Hosting is a one-stop shop for small to medium-sized business owners to get their website online with ease. Their unlimited hosting packages include easy-to-use website builders, control panel, and a number of other tools starting at only $4.95 a month. They also offer other fundamentally important Internet marketing (SEO) solutions, such as domain name registration, website design, social media marketing, logo design, video and written content creation and search engine submission. Customers can request free quotes or place orders directly on the website for a number of Internet marketing (SEO) services – making the whole process streamlined.

The new Big Hook Hosting Affiliate Program offers potential affiliates a great set of features, including a competitive commission rate (up to an amazing 40%), an easy-to-use affiliate control panel, and a complete start-up kit with instructions, hints and tips, banners ads, text links and proven headlines. But wait, there's more! Big Hook Hosting takes it a step further and provides a second tier. If any affiliate referrals sign up for their affiliate program and start referring people, they will earn an additional 5% from their sales! After becoming a Super Affiliate (over 10 sales) – 10%!

To learn more about Big Hook Hosting, head over to: http://bighookhosting.com

Wilde Web Marketing is proud to announce the launch of Big Hook Website Hosting. Since their grand opening, Wilde Web Marketing has been helping small businesses in Appleton, WI and the surrounding Fox Cities/Fox Valley area to build a successful online presence. With a unique knack for professional and creative website design and effective Internet marketing (SEO), their clients benefit from increased website traffic, increased sales, and ultimately, bigger and better profits. As a website design and internet marketing (SEO) firm, they have already helped dozens of businesses to grow their online presence and reach out to a new and larger audience. They currently offer all-in-one packages to get businesses online and into the world of Internet marketing. From website development to search engine optimization (SEO), Wilde Web Marketing believes that businesses of all sizes should be able to afford and benefit from the many opportunities that the Internet has to offer.

In an attempt to help their clients even more and further enhance the services that Wilde Web Marketing provides, they have now launched Big Hook Website Hosting to offer a one-stop shop for small to medium sized business owners to get their website online with ease. Their hosting packages provide unlimited web hosting and includes easy-to-use website builders, control panel, and a number of other tools starting at only $4.95 per month, in addition to domain name registration services. Their web hosting packages can also be bought alongside other fundamentally important Internet marketing solutions, such as professional logo design, social media marketing and search engine submission. Through the Big Hook Website Hosting site, customers are able to request free quotes or place orders directly on the website for a number of Internet marketing services – making the whole process streamlined.

Their new business launch, Big Hook Website Hosting, can be found at: http://bighookhosting.com

Having an attractive, easy to use website is no longer a luxury, it's essential to the success of your business. Can you imagine Home Depot, Walmart, Toys “R” Us, Best Buy or any other major stores you frequent not having a website? What do you think your potential customers will think when your competitors have websites and you don't?

To put the importance of having a website into perspective, according a recent survey 85% of consumers use the Internet to find local businesses before picking up the phone. That means that any business without a website is technically losing 8 out of every 10 potential customers. I think that's worth repeating: Businesses without a website are losing 8 out of every 10 potential customers! Is that really a chance you want to take with the future of your business?

Yes, the Internet can be a very intimidating place for a small business, especially if you have no experience navigating this world “wild” web of Facebook, blogs and search engine optimization (SEO). However, you must face your fears. Any business today without a website is at a severe disadvantage compared to their competitors who are taking advantage of these powerful tools.

Gone are the days when a simple classified ad in the newspaper or a yellow pages listing were enough to get the phone ringing. Times have changed and if you want your business to survive and succeed going forward, your business must change, too. Your target customers are already online. They are using the Internet to research local businesses and often make their purchasing decisions long before picking up the phone or driving to a store. If you want them to find your business, then you need a website.

Don't get left behind. Get your business online today with a great looking, easy to use website and start taking advantage of the many opportunities that the Internet has to offer.

Where do I even start?  The answer to that question still seems to elude many small business owners today.  With so many important factors that go into designing a successful website, and with what seems like an endless number of options for marketing your small business on the Internet, it can quickly become overwhelming for anyone and results in them never taking that all-important first step.

Welcome to our Website Design and Internet Marketing (SEO) blog, where hopefully we will answer that question and help guide you through this maze of opportunity with how-to articles, tips, reviews and ideas to help your business succeed online.

We will cover a range of website design and Internet marketing topics, including how to design a successful website, keyword research, search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, social media marketing (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn), mobile marketing and much more!

If there's a topic of interest that you would like to see here, please let us know!  The goal of this blog is to help you get the information you need to take advantage the Internet and grow your business.