Anyone who knows what it’s like to make money blogging will tell you one thing: affiliate networks are a necessity if you want to earn anything from your site. It’s also a good jump-off point for bloggers who are just starting out and aren’t yet being approached by advertisers.

First things first, however. What exactly does it mean to be an affiliate? When you sign up for an affiliate program, you agree to drive traffic and/or sales to your partner site in exchange for a commission. Affiliate programs like these abound; some of the most popular ones include Google Adsense, Amazon.com Associates, Clickbank, and Azoogle.

As it stands, affiliate marketing isn’t as easy as it appears to be.  You can’t take it for granted that your readers will click through your ad links, nor can you guarantee that they’ll buy something from your affiliate partner.  If you want to make money blogging, you’re going to have to formulate a strategy that will maximize what your affiliate program has to offer.  Below are some tips that might make affiliate marketing a little easier – and definitely more lucrative – for you.

1. Stick to the simpler things:

Over time, it’s become more and more obvious that glitzy banners and flashy ads on your site don’t do as well as advertising that comes in the simple form of links. In other words, people are most likely to respond to an ad if it’s subtle and non-invasive, which is exactly what an ad link is like. Not just that – the difficulty with banners is that they sometimes take forever to load, especially if they require a demanding program to run successfully. Go with the simpler format, and your ads are likely to get much more attention and click-throughs than your banner ads.

2. Make sure that your blog theme and affiliate program are compatible:

Your advertisements should also strive to be relevant to your blog’s specific niche.  Sure, you have all the freedom to put up ads for luxury cars on your digital technology website.  The problem?  You’re targeting the wrong market.  Techies and gadget geeks don’t always take a shine to luxury cars, so putting up an ad that won’t be a hit with your audience is practically useless.  Instead, go with an affiliate program that matches your readers’ tastes, needs, and preferences.  That way, you boost your chances of making a sale at one point or another.

Don’t stick to just one program:

Make the probability game work in your favour: sign up for multiple affiliate programs, and tweak them all so they work in harmony with each other. For example: you can use Google Adsense alongside other affiliate programs. Be sure to implement this in moderation, however. Most readers are turned off by excessive advertising, so don’t be too blatant about your intent to earn money. Instead, position your ads tastefully, in such a way that your readers don’t feel like their experience of your blog is akin to staring at a huge billboard.

4. Create reviews for products that your readers will be interested in:

Services like ReviewMe.com will pay you for every review you make and put up on your site.  Don’t review just about anything that will pay you well, however.  Choose products that are relevant to the overall thrust of your blog and are of great interest to your readers.  It’s also essential to try to be as objective as you can to be fair to those who read your work and trust it.

It’s not too hard to figure out how affiliate marketing works, or what it takes to be a good affiliate.  Refining your strategy with affiliate programs is just one of the better ways to make money blogging, and when it’s used prudently and wisely with your existing marketing strategy, your blog is bound to go places.

Pinnaclemicro.com, Santa Ana, California, established in 1991, has a new affiliate program with Shareasale that is up and growing quickly according to Pinnaclemicro’s spokesman.

The program is paying 3% commission on computer hardware or software sales and 9% on tape drive, optical drive and printer repair sales. EZSystems.com and Pinnaclemicrogb.co.uk are two other sister sites that are part of this new program. Based on tracking visitor cookies the commissions will be paid on traffic generated to these sites also.

Boy, it was simple for this writer to sign up and approval is done quick. Here is the link to join

With over 2 million computer related products online, both new and refurbished and harder to find this program is doing well for affiliates. They have a datafeed for selected affiliates.

Since Pinnaclemicro takes credit cards and ships on a worldwide basis this is a global opportunity for affiliates. New affiliates are spreading around the world as this opportunity to earn money off of visitors who are sent to one of 3 sites listed above continues to flourish.

Pinnaclemicro is paying commissions on affiliate traffic for 90 days. This is called a 90 day cookie.The average sale is around $250 for hardware or software sales and $500 for tape or optical drive repairs.This new program is getting good conversion. The program is open to all affiliates who sign up. Pinnaclemicro’s spokesman for the program says we can use more good affiliates to grow expand with us. Coupon sites, bloggers, forums, directories, search engines, pay per click ads, articles, social networking sites and broadcast emailing are just some of the methods Pinnaclemicro’s affiliates are using to get the word out to gain traffic and earn commissions for customers sent to Pinnaclemicro’s web sites.

80 affiliates so far have joined in the first few weeks but once the word gets out the company expects to have and support several thousands affiliates on a global basis.