There are two ways people make money on the Internet:
- They sell things.
- They help other people sell things.
Selling things involves getting money somehow from the
person visiting your site. You need either a
credit card
or some form of
electronic cash,
or they need to mail you a payment.
Helping someone sell sell things involves getting money from
another company when a person visits your site. You can get
money for displaying a
banner advertisement,
or you can get
money when the visitor buys something from a site to which
you steer them.
Examples of the latter method are the various associate
programs run by companies that sell books or games on the net.
For example, Amazon.com encourages people with Web sites to
print
book reviews,
and contain in the review a link to the
Amazon.com site. If the visitor buys the book from Amazon,
the Web site owner gets between 5% and 15% of the price of the
book. Other on-line bookstores such as
Canada's Internet Bookstore
and
Stuffed Flamingo Publications
have similar programs.
There are two things to keep in mind about associate programs.
One is that you don't make any money unless the visitor buys
something from the host company.
The other is a bit more subtle. The visitor must
buy the product immediately. If the visitor browses around the
other site before buying, you will get no credit for the sale.
As I find examples, I will add them to my page of
associate programs.