If you've been on the web for a while, the chances are that at some time or other you will have taken part in an affiliate program. They generally work by giving you a URL to send people to their site that contains your affiliate number, and then giving you a small amount for each person who comes in using your link and signs up or buys something.

eBay's affiliate program follows this basic formula, but with a few twists.

It pays a lot. Each user who follows your link to eBay, signs up and then bids on anything within 30 days will earn you $20. Most affiliate programs will only give you something like 10% of the user's first purchase. What's more, for each existing eBay user who clicks through from your site and then places a bid or buys something, you'll get 10c.

You can be your own affiliate. If you just link to your own auctions with your affiliate link number from your own website, then you're getting money without sending buyers to anyone except yourself. There aren't many affiliate programs that can say that.

So Where Do I Sign Up?

You can visit eBay's affiliate program at http://affiliates.ebay.com/. Once you're there, just click 'Join the Program'. You will then be required to sign up for Commission Junction, which is free.

How Can I Get People to Click the Links?

eBay suggest a number of 'business models' for their affiliates. Before people can click your affiliate links, they need to be at your website. There are two ways to get them there using a search engine, which eBay refer to as 'natural' and 'paid' search.

Natural search: This is when someone finds your website in a search engine's normal results, either because something you wrote is relevant to them or you used SEO (search engine optimisation) techniques. Be careful not to use any dodgy methods to get a high search engine ranking, though, or eBay might come after you and keep your affiliate money.

Paid search: This strategy involves paying for traffic to your website or directly to eBay, by buying ads on search engines. If you go for this option, it's actually worth placing ads on the less popular search engines instead of the big ones: they'll have similar click-through rates as a percentage, but the cost typically won't be anywhere near as high.

Content: What you can do is just have a normal website, with articles on a variety of subjects and perhaps a community forum. Run the website for pleasure, but place the occasional eBay affiliate link there.

Newsletters: Don't ignore the potential of putting your affiliate ID in each time you send out a newsletter. You can get 10c for every bid it generates with no extra work, which could be enough for the email to pay for itself, whether it leads to any sales or not.

Sadly, our time together is nearly at an end, but there is one thing that I have left to show you. It's called the featured gallery, and it could help your sales. Look out for the next email!

About the author:

Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.