An affiliate program is a partnership with an online merchant (that is, a Web site that sells goods or services). When you join these programs, you can put links on your site.

These links come in the form of banners, text links, and a number of other more sophisticated types of links. The HTML code for these links is supplied to you by online merchants through the LinkShare interface. You can put these links anywhere you want on your site. LinkShare can help you figure out how to place your links so that they are most effective.

How does it work?
A visitor comes to your site. If the visitor clicks on one of the links you have put up, that visitor goes to the merchant's site. If that visitor buys something on the merchant's site, you get a commission.

In some cases, affiliates are compensated even if the visitor doesn't buy anything, just for having driven traffic to the merchant's site. In still other cases, affiliates can be compensated just for putting the link up on their site. The affiliate's reward varies from merchant to merchant and program to program, depending on the terms of the merchant's offer.

How much does it cost to join LinkShare as an affiliate?
LinkShare is absolutely free for affiliates. Our goal is to help the best online merchants partner with great web sites. LinkShare charges merchants a fee for this service.

How many programs can I join?
As many as you want. There is no limit to the number of programs that LinkShare affiliates can join. However, we recommend that you only select those programs that best suit your audience.

Why LinkShare?
LinkShare is the most convenient, straightforward, and reliable affiliate program for affiliates. LinkShare hosts The LinkShare Network, where affiliates can use one username and password to quickly and easily find programs they want to join from among the 400 merchants who have affiliate programs through LinkShare. LinkShare is a trusted third party offering the most accurate tracking in the industry.

How do I begin joining Programs?
Once you join LinkShare, we will give you a username and password. You can go to www.linkshare.com and use your new username and password to log in. Then you can select from the categories listed on the main page or in the Join section of the interface to find the types of programs that interest you.

What does LinkShare do for affiliates?
LinkShare hosts a password-protected Web site that offers affiliates a choice of hundreds of merchants' programs. On the site, affiliates can join new programs, get links to put on their sites, and get reports about how their links are performing and how much they have earned.

Whenever a visitor from an affiliate's site clicks on a link and goes to a merchant's site, LinkShare keeps track of all of the transactions that the visitor makes on that merchant's site. LinkShare reminds the merchant when it owes money to an affiliate and makes sure that the affiliate is credited and paid.

LinkShare also takes care of much the communication between the merchant and the affiliate, and provides the affiliate with customer service. LinkShare notifies the affiliate about new programs and new opportunities, and offers resources for affiliates to learn about how to get the most out of their programs.

What percentage of the sale do I get from a merchant?
It varies from merchant to merchant. When you join programs, you are given the details about the kind or kinds of compensation that merchant is offering.

How do I know how much the merchant owes me?
You can see a daily update of how much you are owed. Just log in and check the quick report or any of the other sixteen detailed reports that are available.

How do I get the code for the links I put on my site? Does the merchant send it to me? Do I go to the merchant's site to get it?
You can get the HTML code for your links right on the LinkShare site. All you have to do is copy the code from LinkShare and paste it into your own HTML pages.